


Breathe - A J. Daniel Atlas Story

by Abixx7



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: Action, Art, Because I love musicals, Crime Fighting, F/M, Grumpy Margot, Hate to Love, Heist, Inspired by Now You See Me, Magic, Musical References, Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s), She doesn't really like people, Singing, Stalker, Swearing, kind of?, mild anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-03-07 15:25:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 59
Words: 110,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13437687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abixx7/pseuds/Abixx7
Summary: When Dylan Rhodes is in desperate need of a favor, it's Margot Rosario who answers his call and opens up her and her brother's theatre for the Horsemen to call their base while the recover from everything that happened in Macau. It soon becomes clear, however, that there are pressing problems closer to home: Margot is struggling to put her dark and dangerous past behind her and is conflicting with her own inner demons, as well as tackling her feelings for her new housemates. But as growing tensions rear their head, it becomes obvious that action must be taken. Will Margot, with the help of her best friend, brother and the Horsemen, be able to track down an illusive trafficker? Will Margot finally be able to face her past that has been keeping her trapped and come to terms with her growing feelings for all-round control freak, Daniel Atlas? And will she be able to find the magic that has been missing from her life?





	1. Prologue

So this is a story that has been a very long time in the works but for some reason never seemed to make it's way down the pipeline. But now, it's finally here!  
\- I'll be updating this story twice a week - every Sunday at 10:30AM GMT and every Wednesday at 6:00PM GMT  
\- This story takes place around 3 months after the events of the Now You See Me 2 movie  
\- This story will contain some swearing, some mentions of abusive relationships and some experience of panic attacks (but I'll label each specific chapter that contains anything possibly triggering)  
\- I don't own this world or any of the Horsemen; the rest of the characters are my own  
\- For those interested, Margot looks like the actress Beren Saat  
\- You can check out the Spotify playlist that I've made to go with this story, which includes featured songs and other songs that I think apply to the world I've created (https://open.spotify.com/user/abicxx/playlist/3NEwGChZOjUGFA0pA6XnSy?si=QSKOJqP5TyKX8n_KcPVueQ).  
\- You can also check out my story and character aesthetics on my Pinterest account and let me know if there are any other characters or themes that you'd like me to do one for (https://www.pinterest.co.uk/abi_cxx/story-aesthetics/breathe/)  
\- Enjoy!


	2. 1

I wiped the speck of dirt off the glass before replacing it on the stack behind the bar, sighing as pushed the hair from my eyes. Ben always said that he'd cleaned the bar and while that was true, I always found another crate of drinks to move or a stack of glasses that were littered with spots of dust. Ben wasn't as thorough as I was, or as much of a perfectionist.

I'd spent the morning taking stock of all the drinks and snacks we had and updating the spreadsheet on my laptop. Saturday night was always our busiest night and I didn't want to run out of chips half way through and have to turn the hungry and eager-to-pay customers away.

We were safe on chips, for tonight at least, but I hoped we didn't have a rush on of peanuts because I had a feeling some spectators were going to be feeling disappointed.

I paused for a moment as I heard the bell ring, signaling that the door to the main theatre room was being opened. Ben and Claude were running a number on the stage so could handle the handful of people that were undoubtedly checking their times for tonight's performance, or seeing whether they could change their seats to the row in front.

I wiped down the bar counter, humming quietly to myself before stopping. I could hear the low murmur of voices coming from downstairs - it was definitely a group of people. And I thought back to my last phone call with Dylan, he'd said he was bringing his friends over on a Saturday in the next couple of weeks...

Shit...

I threw the cloth I was using into the sink, watching it fly through the air, before darting out of the room. I'd thought about the decision over in my head more than a thousand times over the last few weeks and I'd even argued with Ben about it, him as per usual taking the side that they needed to help Dylan out while I was fighting the side that they'd disrupt everything we were doing and the last thing I needed were TV cameras bustling at the door, fighting to get in.

But we owed Dylan. I knew that, and even though Ben had repeated it to me a dozen times, it had never once left my mind.

We owed Dylan and because of that, we'd do whatever we could to help him. Even if I wasn't particularly fond of magicians. I'd seen them on the TV a handful of times but with performers it was sometimes difficult to know where the character ended and the real person began.

I hurried down the stairs that led up to the bar from the ballroom floor, throwing my long wavy hair over my shoulder. Ben was walking over from the piano that was in the middle of the floor while Claude checked something on her phone at the same time as casually resting in the splits.

Standing by the door was Dylan and I watched for a moment as he smiled and shook Ben's hand, saying something about how grateful he was that we'd agreed to let them stay. It wasn't Dylan I had a problem with, though. It was the others.

I walked over to them, my eyes scanning over each of the horsemen in turn, two of which were staring down at their phones. Dylan beamed when he saw me, kissing me lightly on the cheek and embracing me in a brief hug. 'Long time, no see - ' He teased as I crossed my arms in front of me and shot Ben a quick look. He was smiling, obviously, and rolled his eyes when he saw me scowling.

'I can't believe you're actually here - ' I said with a small smile, taking in Dylan's loose black shirt and jeans. He looked the same as when I'd last seen him almost a year ago, albeit with a slightly bigger beard. I felt a pang of sadness; my interaction with Dylan was only a result of my mom's death. I'd never would have met him otherwise and that stark fact always left me feeling a little wounded.

'Thank you so much for doing this - ' He repeated and I shrugged, ignoring Ben's eyes that were boring into my head. He was the only one who knew all the convincing it had taken to get me to agree. We'd exchanged some pretty bitter words -

'And what is this, exactly?' A voice behind him murmured and I instantly narrowed my eyes as I glared over at the speaker, J. Daniel Atlas. The cocky one that Claude's mom thought had 'hidden depths'. I just thought he was a dick.

'This is where we're staying for the next few weeks.' Dylan said before I could interject. 'And probably where our next trick is going to take place. We're going for something on a bit of a smaller scale this time, I think.'

'Why weren't we told about this?' Atlas continued.

'It was a last minute decision - '

'The Eye okayed this?' Atlas sounded amazed and that made me want to slap him even more. Next to me, Ben was practically itching to grab hold of my wrist to restrain me.

'They did.' I didn't know what The Eye was because I didn't know the ins and outs of magician politics. And to be perfectly honest, I didn't care.

'It's not exactly...flashy. Doesn't look like it's going to attract a, how do I say this, high-profile clientele and - '

'I'm sorry - ' I interrupted sharply, giving Ben the briefest of glances to see that he was grinding his teeth at me, 'but if you're going to insult my theatre then you can leave right now.'

'It's yours?'

'Yes.' I spat, not explaining the fact we technically had joint-ownership of the place and the facets were split between myself and Ben.

'Could do with a bit of a paint job - ' Atlas murmured under his breath, but loud enough so that I could hear clearly.

God, I wanted to redact my agreement to let them stay here but I knew it was too late now. And besides, Ben wouldn't let me. Even if one of our new housemates was a cocky asshole.

'One more word and I'm going to throw you out - ' I hissed, rolling my eyes as I felt Ben's hand on my shoulder, tugging me back slightly from where I stepped forwards.

'It's just the jetlag - ' Dylan said briskly, turning to give Atlas a hard look that he shrugged off. I already wanted to kick Atlas out and he'd only been in the building five minutes.

'It'd better be - ' I murmured to Ben as Dylan turned towards the horsemen and Ben squeezed my shoulder before releasing it.

'So this is Lula - ' Lula looked up from her phone and shot us a smile, before tucking it into her pocket. As the only girl, I instantly paid more attention to her. She seemed friendly enough and from what I'd seen on the TV, she didn't seem to be as cocky as Atlas which was a good thing. 'This is Jack.' Jack also looked up from his phone and waved. The only thing I knew about Jack was that he'd faked his death last year. 'And this is Merritt - ' I was instantly wary of him for completely disrespecting the 'no hats in the theatre unless they are part of a costume' rule that I lived by.

'It's nice to meet you all - ' Ben said with a warm smile. I was going to have to give them the benefit of the doubt. If Dylan called them his friends, then they couldn't possibly be that bad.

'And this is - '

'J. Daniel Atlas. I know.' I said sharply, looking pointedly over at Dylan with a sharp smile. 'I watch the news.'

'Honored...' He muttered. I hated cocky people, I always had, though Claude always said that was because they reminded  
me too much of myself as I could be pretty cocky too when I wanted to be. Apparently.

'And this - ' Dylan said, gesturing towards myself and Ben, 'is Margot and Bennir - '

'Ben.' Ben interjected quickly with a shrug.

'Okay, Margot and Ben Rosario. They're old friends - ' I could see the curiousity clearly on the horsemen's faces but neither myself or Ben were going to start to divulge that story quite yet. The only way that was getting out was if there was copious amounts of alcohol involved.

'This is the Rosetta Ballroom - ' Ben started with a smirk in my direction, turning around and gesturing outwards, looking remarkably like a tour guide. 'It was built in the mid 30s and our parents did all the major renovation works in the mid 80s, so, when they died, the place automatically came to us - '

Why was he telling our life story to a group of complete strangers? Dylan knew all of this already but I didn't know how confident I felt in letting them all know about the more intimate parts of my life. And as Ben started going into detail about the amusing way our parents had come to own the place - and further affirming my idea that Ben should consider a career in tourism - I cut him off.

'It's technically a ballroom seeing how the majority of the room is...floor - ' I gestured out towards the polished floor behind me, 'but all the seats can be moved out or put away to create more of a theatre space and there's room for the lights and staging and whatever...'

'We're doing a dress rehearsal later - ' Ben said, continuing on my tangent. He must have been able to tell that I wanted to draw the conversation away from our personal history and I was much more comfortable talking about the logistics of our theatre. 'And you're welcome to watch that to get an idea about how everything works. Presumably you're going to want to see everything in action in case you do end up doing a show - '

'What show are you doing?' Merritt asked, a curious tilt in his voice. I hoped they weren't the type of people who cast musicals off as being shallow and over-the-top because that was something else I couldn't handle.

'In The Heights, obviously.' Ben said with a smile and I rolled my eyes, noticing the blankness in everyone's eyes. 'What?'

'Never heard of it - ' Merritt said with a shrug.

'I know it won a Tony!' Lula inputted. I had to suppress my sigh. These people really needed a musical intervention and I was well intent of giving them one.

'It's kind of a community fable - ' Ben explained, pushing his hands into his pockets. 'It's set in Washington Heights so it tends to resonate with people around here. And we've got a couple of new cast members lately so we need to run the show with them.'

I heard Atlas murmur something under his breath to Jack but it was so quiet that I couldn't make out the exact words. I wanted to slap him. Hard. And I would have, if Claude hadn't come over at that moment and tap me on the shoulder.

'Are you busy?' I shook my head. I was never too busy for her. 'Can you help me with this routine a minute?'

'Sure - ' It would allow me to get away from Atlas for a minute so that the next time I saw him, I didn't feel compelled to punch him.

'I'm off helping with batons - '

'I know I've got this - ' Ben said with a smile.

'There's a carnival thing happening next week. It's a good way of promoting and we're doing some acro routines so - ' I hastily explained, already pulling my hair into a ponytail using the hair-tie that was always around my wrist.

'I knew you did that stuff but I didn't think you actually...' Dylan started and I grinned as he looked a little sheepish.

'Any good?'

'She is.' Claude confirmed, looping her arm in mine and I saw Atlas narrow his eyes at our interaction. 'Her entire body is basically made of elastic.'

'Isn't batons just throwing sticks in the air?' Atlas asked and I glared at him one more time, before Claude grudgingly led me away and towards the stage.

'No, it's not.' I murmured to Claude, watching her quickly pull her sleek brown hair into a bun. 'And I might just aim really off now on purpose so I can knock him out.'

'What are they even doing here?' She whispered, peering over her shoulder to where Ben was still explaining the layout of the theatre. Atlas was peering around on his own whim and Jack looked like he was going to fall asleep any moment. Maybe it really was the jet lag.

'We owe Dylan.' I admitted. Dylan had sworn us to secrecy until the whole thing was confirmed because they hadn't wanted a tribe of TV cameras following them on the highway. 'He was friends with our mom when he was in the FBI.'

'So we have to keep it a secret?' She asked pointedly with a smirk, picking up her pair of batons and throwing a pair at me.

'Not a secret, but we can't go around advertising it.' I said, deftly catching the batons in one hand. 'What?'

'Nothing. It's just going to be interesting having 5 magicians roaming around the place.'

'Interesting isn't exactly what I'd call it.' More like a pain in the ass. But I wasn't going to admit that.

***  
After I'd helped Claude run through her baton routine, as well as running through my own, I started to tidy up the floor in preparation for our dress rehearsal. Claude had popped home to check on her mom and while I really wanted Ben's opinion on something, he was still talking to the horsemen. And if I wasn't mistaken, I'd actually heard Jack laugh at something he said. How was he so good with people?

'So what do you do, exactly?' Lula asked suddenly and I looked up to see Ben leading them down towards the stage.

'I sing, play the piano, help Margot run the stage - '

'I think Dylan's implying that he wants a show.' I called with a smirk, collecting the stray pieces of sheet music that were littered around the piano.

'Maybe in a bit - ' Ben brushed off their gazes and led them over to where I was standing in the middle of the floor. 'I promise I'll do Piano Man later.'

Piano Man was Ben's go-to karaoke song of choice. And not only because he could do an amazing rendition of it, but because that was my nickname for him.

'And, if I remember correctly Margot sings as well as throwing her sticks in the air.' Dylan said with a subtle smile in my direction and I rolled my eyes turning away from them for a moment as Ben grabbed onto my arm, pulling me towards him.

'I don't love singing in front of judgmental pricks.' I murmured to him and Ben gave me a hard look.

'Come on. If I'm doing it then - '

'Okay, fine!' Ben was one of the only people with the ability to be able to guilt-trip me into doing this. Most of the time that was performing; when I was performing behind a character, I was fine. But when I was Margot, things were a little more difficult.

But I was going to the best rendition of Buenos Aires that Atlas, and the rest of them, had ever heard. That was going to make him shut up.

\- What do you think so far? Margot and Atlas' relationship isn't exactly blooming, is it?

FEATURED SONGS:  
\- Billy Joel - Piano Man  
\- Glee Cast - Buenos Aires


	3. 2

After my rendition of Buenos Aries - which I was happy to see got everyone looking a little shocked - Ben's rendition of Piano Man, we started to show them around the rest of the ballroom.

The bar, in particular, seemed to pique everyone's interest and I had to regain control of the situation very quickly. 'It's not a free bar - ' I told them sternly. We had to make money somehow.

Merritt sighed dramatically. 'Nothing in life is ever free is it...'

'Thank you so much for doing this.' Dylan repeated, for what was definitely the 5th time since we'd started showing them around and there wasn't even that much to see.

'It's no problem, really - ' Ben said with a smile and I could see him looking at me out of the corner of his eye. Bastard.

'Why are you guys doing this exactly?' Lula asked. 'Letting 5 random people waltz around your business for all hours of the day?' Ben gave me a stern look.

'Dylan knew our mom,' I said slowly. 'We owe him one.'

I honed in on Lula's choice of words. Business. Dylan obviously hadn't told them that it wasn't just our business but also our home and that the rooms we slept in were just down the hall. He obviously hadn't told them that this was where they would be sleeping as well.

An awkward silence flowed between us as myself and Ben looked over at Dylan, Ben clearly having had the same thought I had. Atlas, ever perceptive as he was, picked up on this almost too quickly.

'What?' His cocky demeanor and slightly shaggy hair - I'd been glad to see that he'd decided against the buzz-cut and had started growing it out again, since when I'd seen him basically bald on the news it had prompted a long discussion among myself and Claude about how we liked slightly longer hair on guys - didn't fool me. He was clever and perceptive and annoyingly so.

Dylan sighed and turned to face them. 'We need to try and keep costs down as well as keeping our visibility to the bare minimum. We can't exactly just check into a hotel...'

'So?' Jack mused and I bit my lip. I knew that this news was going to go down like a house on fire.

'We're staying here...'

'I'm sorry, am I hearing you correctly?' Atlas breathed and I rolled my eyes. The others seemed to be a little shocked, all now stood with wide eyes, but I guessed the fact that none of them had fainted at the news, seeing how our theatre was a billion worlds away from the fancy hotels they usually stayed in, was a good sign. 'We're staying here?'

'We are.'

'I hate to burst your bubble, ' I said dryly, 'but Ben and I both sleep here and it's fine - '

'You guys live here?' Jack asked and I nodded, folding my arms across my stomach. I suddenly felt a little self conscious, with everyone staring at us. Was it really so bad?

'That's a terrible work-life balance.' Merritt muttered and I was so taken aback by the fact that he'd just made a joke I couldn't even smile. Either humor was his way of dealing with things or I had overestimated the life of luxury that they'd become accustomed to.

'We can't exactly afford to - '

'No, we can afford it - ' I swiftly cut Ben off, watching as he gave me a slightly dubious look. It wasn't a lie, we could technically afford to get a place of our own. Just. 'We'd just rather but all of the extra money into the theatre. And this way we get to save quite a lot on electricity and internet this way - '

'We've got a fully functioning kitchen and 2 bathrooms.' Ben continued as I focused in on Atlas' reaction. He seemed to have got over the initial shock but that didn't mean he looked particularly happy about it. 'So it's fine.'

'And bedrooms?' Atlas asked.

'All the dressing rooms, bar 1, have sofas in that all pull out into beds.'

'It's very practical.' Ben said with a smile, obviously trying to lift the mood slightly. I wasn't sure how successful he was. Dylan was looking like he wanted to take a very long lie down.

'We've already tried to sort out sleeping arrangements.' I said, shooting Dylan a look. We'd had a short conversation last week and Dylan had explained everyone's relationship to us - he'd basically said that if Merritt and Atlas shared a room he highly doubted whether both of them would make it out of the thing alive.

And I didn't really want to have to explain a corpse in a dressing room to any of the performers.

'Dylan said that Lula and Jack could share a double bed - ' I shot them a look and Lula nodded while Jack started grinning, slinging his arm around Lula shoulders. Merritt let out a cough and Atlas looked like he was going to be sick, rolling his eyes.

So Atlas wasn't a fan of PDA. Good to know.

'So the kids are having a sleepover - ' Merritt joked, nudging Jack gently in the ribs with his elbow.

'There'd better be no 'funny business'.' Atlas said sharply and I raised an eyebrow. So he also had a problem with sex, apparently. 'The walls are so thin that I'll be able to hear everything.'

Or not. It was just another dig at the theatre.

'Watch it.' I said, shooting Ben a smirk. 'I control where you sleep.'

'I'm sure this is unethical...' He muttered under his breath.

'It's this or being captured by a very determined camera crew.' I said flatly. 'You can chose. Meanwhile, Dylan can share the other double bed with Ben. Be careful, Ben snores - ' I added and Ben rolled his eyes.

'I do not, that's a blatant lie - '

'It is not a lie, you so snore - '

'I am not sharing with him.' Atlas said harshly, gesturing to Merritt who held a hand over his heart as though he was mortally wounded.

'Why not? We can have midnight feasts and stay up all night and talk about girls. Or guys, depending on what - '

'Funny.' Atlas said bluntly, cutting him off. 'But I'd rather sleep on the roof.'

'So, we've got a single bed spare - '

'That's mine.' Merritt shouted quickly, shooting a triumphant look in Atlas's direction.

'And that means Atlas gets the double bed - ' Merritt started to loudly protest how it wasn't fair and my method hadn't been diplomatic enough, but I ignored him.

'Something else that isn't fair? Life.' Atlas shot back, a glimmer of a smile on his face. I hadn't thought he was actually capable of smiling. I'd thought his soul to be too cynical to even allow it to happen; I guess he was slightly human.

Still, if I had my way Atlas would probably be sleeping on the floor. Or outside. But I knew that Ben would never let me push things that far.  
***  
After showing them to their respective rooms, Ben and I went to prepare for the dress rehearsal of In The Heights with the promise that we'd come to collect them in half and hour so they could watch the show. The layout of the theatre could be quite confusing if you hadn't spent a lot of time there and I didn't want Atlas accidentally walking into my room.

I didn't know why, it wasn't like it was messy or anything but that felt like an invasion of some privacy that I wasn't ready for yet.

Now that all of the cast had arrived and vocal warm-ups were completed, the Horsemen were sat in the front row seats, clutching bags of popcorn and drinks. If there was positive aspect of this whole thing, then that was that we'd make an awful lot of money from Merritt buying beer.

The cast were now milling around quickly running lines or locating props while we waited for Nick, Zoe and Patrick, the tech people, to get themselves sorted. I was stood in the wings, the walkie-talkie I used to communicate with the Nest - what we called the tech room - clutched in my hand. Ben was stood next to me, hurriedly flicking through his copy of the script, checking any last minute notes.

'What does he think?' I asked slowly, watching Claude speed through one of her many dance routines.

'Of what?' He looked up from his script, his brows furrowing.

'The 4 Horsemen.' He sighed and slowly closed his script, putting it down on the shelf next to him.

'Dylan trusts them. They're basically his family, so that's more than enough for me. And did you really have to shut Danny down like that?' He smiled and I raised an eyebrow at him. It was Danny now?

'So he wasn't annoying you?' I said forcefully and Ben smiled, running a hand through his hair.

'No, of course he was annoying me. But you still didn't have to shut him down like - '

'What can I say, I'm dramatic.' I said with a shrug. 'I'm an actress. You should expect it.'

'Okay.' Ben said, warmly squeezing my shoulder as my walkie-talkie crackled as Nick confirmed we were okay to start. Ben stepped out onto the stage and I followed him, loudly clapping my hands which was the universal signal for everyone to shut up.

'So we're doing the whole thing from the top today, to sort out any mishaps.' I said, looking round the circle of people gathered in front of me. All of them were from Washington Heights and maybe that's why the musical had a special resonance with them. 'And I know that we have an audience today. They're going to be hanging around the place for the next couple of weeks.'

Everyone's eyes had now slid from me to the 5 people sat in the front row. It wasn't every day that we got celebrities around here. 'You've probably seen them on TV and yes, you can ask for autographs or whatever you want after rehearsals have ended - ' I added quickly as I saw Yasmin's hand shoot up. 'But you can't, under any circumstances tell anyone out of their theatre that they're here. At least until I give the go-ahead, okay?' Everyone nodded and mumbled their understanding.

'You can ask me for an autograph any time you like, just putting that out there - ' Ben said with a grin and breaking everyone out in laughter. I rolled my eyes and tucked some hair behind my ear.

'If I hear that any word has got out, then I'll consider moving you into the ensemble or kicking you out.' I said seriously. I knew how seriously Dylan wanted to take the whole 'low-visibility' thing. 'And we'll be able to find out who spilled the beans because we're lucky to have a mentalist in our midst.' I gestured behind me to where Merritt was sitting and seeing as everyone started smiling, I guessed he must have waved or winked or some other dramatic gesture.

That was another useful thing Merritt could do, as well as buying all our beer. Maybe I should consider keeping him around permanently?

'Now our audience isn't going to be looking at you and judging your performance, okay?' I knew that some of the new cast members hadn't actually performed in front of an audience before and while I knew that 5 people would be able to break them in slowly, I didn't want to freak them all out. 'They're watching the set and the lights and the special effects, so no pressure you guys - ' I waved up to the Nest and Ben let out a chuckle next to me.

I took a glance at the Horsemen's faces and while they didn't look like they hated being in the position they were, they weren't bursting with excitement which was what I wanted. I turned back towards the cast.

'We're going to show them what we can all do.' I said, lowering my voice a little. 'We're going to knock their socks off and aim for turning them all into crying wrecks, okay? I won't be satisfied until they're all bawling their eyes out. Agreed?' I looked up at Ben who was grinning. Claude was sporting a similar expression.

'Agreed. Let's do it.'

\- I now have Tumblr! So if you want to find out what I'm endlessly scrolling through then click here (https://www.tumblr.com/blog/but-because-he-really-knows-mex) and you can also keep up to date with all my stories and writing things by clicking here (https://www.tumblr.com/blog/xnot-because-he-owns-me)

\- I hope you enjoyed that chapter? What do you think of Margot, Ben and Claude so far?


	4. 3

The rehearsal went almost perfectly, aside from a moment of terror when I thought the entire set was going to collapse thanks to some particularly enthusiastic dancing from the ensemble members. But by the end I'd seen Merritt and Jack wiping away some tears and I would take that. Not that I expected much from Atlas anyway.

Everyone started making their ways home while Ben and I tidied up, making all of the props were in the right places and nothing had to be fixed or adapted. Now that we'd done a proper rehearsal, I was buzzing with excitement for our first performance with the new cast next week. It didn't matter how many times I practiced or performed it; it never seemed to get old for me.

But maybe that was because the parallels I had with Nina - the character that I played - really were astonishing. And it went a lot deeper than simply sharing a surname.

It was beginning to get dark and I didn't even need to consult the time to know that I should really be starting on making dinner - I could go off the empty, gnawing feeling that was beginning to build up in my stomach.

While it wasn't large by any means, we had a small kitchen that was located just off the main theatre space. It was tiny and most of the faded green tiles were cracked and I was left with barely any room to move but I made it work. I did the majority of the cooking, mainly because Ben seemed to set anything he touched on fire, but seeing as he could do basically every other skill needed around the theatre, I let him off.

Most of the time. When I was feeling particularly vindictive, I liked to bring it up.

While I washed my hands and started thinking about what food we actually had in the cupboards that I could turn into a meal, Ben dragged the dining table out onto the ballroom floor and the horsemen quickly descended. I could hear their voices through the kitchen door, Dylan asking the group what they wanted to do for dinner.

The gnawing feeling in my stomach started to grow stronger.

I looked up as Ben pushed the door open and left it open as he walked towards me. 'We can't really give them free food, can we?' Ben murmured softly as I peered over his shoulder to watch Merritt attempt to throw a playing card across the room. 'It's what we should do, seeing as they're our guests and everything but we can't - we just can't afford - '

That was the thing about Ben. He was the kindest person that I've ever met and probably would ever meet but he wasn't stupid. And I knew that the kindness of his heart and the logic of his head brought on his internal conflict. I shook my head.

'Not really.' We didn't have much disposable income after paying for all the bills and food for ourselves was where we tended to scrimp. Every day I thought about how we could save more money or how we could make more to give ourselves that little bit more. It wasn't like we were excess shoppers anyway because we both knew how tight money was.

We didn't have much in our savings and had both agreed to mainly leave this alone - our savings were only to be used in emergencies and the only thing that seemed to class as an emergency was if one of us was in hospital or was dying. Anything else we had to work around.

I knew that we were lucky just to have a roof over our heads, really. Our parents - largely our Dad - had spent almost all their savings doing the theatre up and keeping it from falling into ruin. Now, it was up to us to try and make a success of it. And if that meant skipping breakfast sometimes then so be it.

'I might have an idea...' Ben said slowly and I raised an eyebrow at him.

'And?' He didn't reply, just turned on his heel and walked out towards the others. I wrapped a lock of hair around my finger, my nervous tick. What was he planning?

'If each of you pay 5 bucks then our kitchen would be delighted to provide for you a burger, fries and a drink, freshly prepared by our in-house chef, Margot Rosario - ' I rolled my eyes at Ben's words but instantly started smiling. Ben had a way of saying anything in a way to make it sound friendly. And I definitely wasn't good enough to be titled the 'in-house chef'.

'Is that an alcoholic drink?' Merritt asked and Ben turned round to face me, shrugging his shoulders. I pulled a face. That might be pushing it a bit.

'No, alcoholic drinks will have to be purchased separately.'

What were they going to say? Would they think that were stooges? Or that we literally couldn't afford to put food on the table? Because something about that made my heart tighten in my chest. And I knew it was selfish and that it was pride and I really needed to stop caring about what people thought about me but I couldn't.

I wanted people to think I was strong and capable. Not that I was so poor that I couldn't afford to eat. I was holding my breath without even realizing it.

'Does it come with ketchup?' I heard Jack ask and Ben must have said something in response but I wasn't really listening. They hadn't asked why we had to do this, even though it was pretty obvious. They hadn't tried to drive the price down to 4 bucks which I knew some people might have done.

Because out of all the things that I was worrying about, out of all the things that they could asked, the only thing they wanted to know was did it come with ketchup.

And of course it came with ketchup. We weren't animals.

Ben came back into the kitchen, clutching a handful of $5 bills and smiling. He tucked the bills inside the biscuit jar that stood on the kitchen counter that was where we kept all of our spare money. I'd learned from experience that walking around with anything more than a $5 bill was a sure way of getting yourself robbed.

We had another biscuit jar for the actual biscuits. Because it might look a bit strange if all our money smelled of cinnamon and chocolate chips.

'We might be able to make some money out of this - ' I said with a smirk, pulling the fries and burger patties out of the freezer. Ben rolled his eyes at me as he collected 7 sets of cutlery from the drawer.

'Because that's the only reason why we're doing this. For the money.' I shrugged.

'It's a good incentive.'  
***  
I scooped the last portion of chips out of the fryer and onto the plate, wiping my forehead on the back of my sleeve. That was another thing about having an abnormally small kitchen; it got very hot very quickly, particularly when using the oven and the deep fat-fryer at the same time.

And while Ben had been helping in the beginning, sorting all the plates and cutlery out as well as seeing that everyone had a drink - and had paid for them - he'd quickly disappeared and taken to instead standing half way between the kitchen and the table where the horsemen were sat, talking about...something.

I rolled my eyes as I wiped the grease from my hands, sticking my head out of the kitchen door. Ben was telling a story about something he'd done during kindergarten, as though anyone at the table cared and that he could really remember the story half as well as pretended he could.

'Waiter!' I called sharply, turning back around to make sure all of the portions were equally sized. I didn't want to start a food fight.

'Is that all I am to you?' Ben asked with a grin, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

'Basically - ' I gestured down to the plates that were sat on the counter and he sighed, pushing himself off the wall before arranging three plates across his arm.

'I'm wounded.' He took the sets of plates out to the table and before I could realize what was happening, he came back for the next 3. I was guessing the plate he'd left was for me.

'At least I know if everything crashes and burns, you'll make a pretty good waiter.' I joked, putting my plate down in the free spot between Ben and Dylan.

'And you'll make a pretty decent chef.' I didn't mention that my cooking repertoire didn't extend to anything more technical than cottage pie but it was good to know that we had our plan B sorted if everything decided to tumble sideways.

'Hey, do you guys have any - ' I passed Jack the ketchup while he was still mid-sentence. He winked in my direction as he took the bottle from me and I rolled my as I went over to the store cupboard to get myself a chair. It was yet another example of how Ben was basically a loveable 5 year old - when I annoyed him, he'd start leaving me to do everything.

'This is mmm - really good - ' Merritt mumbled through a mouthful of burger and fries and I saw Atlas visibly cringe. So he was also a picky eater and maybe even a germophobe.

I sat myself down at the table and took a bit myself. There were pretty decent, seeing as they were the cheapest burgers that money could buy. But I'd learned a long time ago that if you paired anything with enough fries, and a good amount of salt and pepper, then you couldn't even really tell how good the quality was.

And, on the plus side, fries also counted as vegetables, so technically I was getting one of my 5 a day too.

'So, you guys really live like this?' Lula said, not unkindly, as she gestured to the table. I shrugged as Ben nodded. Erecting a dining table in the middle of the ballroom was just second nature to us now. It was either that or you ate standing up.

'It's what we're used to.' Ben said, nonchalantly as he shot me a smile.

'How long have you lived here?'

'27 years,' I replied instinctively. We'd moved here when we were 2 years old from Puerto Rico and that had been that.

'That's crazy,' Jack said in disbelief. I knew what everyone must be thinking. That for more than a quarter of a century we'd been living in a theatre and were unable to afford anywhere else. That we hadn't done anything better with our lives.

We ate in silence for a few moments, which wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. Or maybe it was and I was just happy because the hungry ache in my stomach was slowly being filled.

'Margot and Ben are twins,' Dylan said after a moment, wiping some ketchup from his lips.

'That's fun.' Merritt said and I looked over at Ben. It was fun. It was also bloody annoying sometimes.

'Who's older?' Luka asked and I smirked in Ben's direction; he sighed, shooting me a long glance that had me giggling.

'Me.' I said with a grin.

'By 3 whole minutes!' Ben said dramatically with a sigh. He'd lived his entire life with people asking us that question and having to admit that he was the younger sibling and, understandably, he was bored of it by now.

I, on the other hand, relished every second of it.

We descended into silence again, which gave me a second to take in the horsemen without them realizing what I was doing. I concentrated on Atlas the most because he'd been strangely silent throughout the whole of dinner.

Maybe he was just tired and it really was the jet-lag. Or maybe my cooking repulsed his sophisticated tastes so much that he was struggling not to puke it back up into Merritt's hat. Or maybe, despite his early outbursts, he just wasn't much of a talker when he didn't have anything to say.

He definitely wasn't adhering to the snark, cocky stereotype who constantly had to hear his own voice ringing in his ears. But that didn't mean he wasn't snarky or cocky. He was just having a quiet minute.

'I want to say again just how good the show was - ' Dylan said with a smile, for what seemed like the 3rd time in the last hour. I beamed and noticed Ben doing the same. It was hard not to react when someone complimented your work.

'That's what we're here for.' Ben said nonchalantly with a shrug, but I knew the praise went deeper for him as well. It was people's affirmations that you were doing a good job that kept you going.

'Nothing went disastrously wrong either.' I said with a smirk, deciding not to mention the whole terrifying 30 seconds where the entire set nearly collapsed. 'Who's your favorite character?'

'Nina.' Lula admitted in a heartbeat and I rolled my eyes, because of course she would say that. 'Really! She's so sassy! But Sonny's pretty cool too - ' She said to quickly to Ben, before turning back to look at me. 'And I love Vanessa too - '

'They don't even have to do any acting for that - ' Ben said, gesturing towards me with his fork. 'That's what they're like in real life. Stubborn as mules and constantly bursting into song - '

'You love it really.' I said with a grin, sticking my tongue out at him. He did. Or I hoped he did, considering how one of them was his sister and he was dating the other.

\- Any thoughts? How do you think the plot is going to develop?


	5. 4

I double checked that the latch was fastened securely before locking the door with my three set of keys. We took security pretty seriously, seeing how this place wasn't just our business but our home as well. Because if someone broke in - which had happened in the past and I was sure would happen again seeing as the crime rate only looked to be increasing - it wasn't just the furniture and the limited valuables that were at risk, it was us as well.

And, for the next couple of weeks, the 4 Horsemen.

Everyone else was still awake and making good use of the in-house bar that we provided but I was more than ready to head to bed and have a long, deep sleep. I liked getting the early nights in when I could because they didn't happen all that often, seeing as we either had a show on or someone booking out the ballroom most nights of the week and then we had to clean up and put everything back together again.

I paused in the doorframe, folding my arms as I watched Ben pass Dylan a bottle of beer and throw a packet of chips in Lula's direction. A bubble of anxiety welled up in my stomach. I felt stupid doing this but if I didn't, then there was going to be chaos in the morning. And while organized chaos was very much how I lived my life, outright chaos was far too much for me to handle.

And while I wasn't their mother, this was my theatre, as well as Ben's who was also onboard with the whole 'give them guidelines rather than rules' approach that we'd decided to run with. That still didn't make me feel any less awkward as I pushed away from the door frame, fully entered the room and caught Ben's eye.

'So, concerning the morning - ' I waved away the bottle that Ben gestured towards me as I leaned against the bar. 'Obviously you guys can get up whenever you want and when I get up I'll sort something out for breakfast which you're welcome to have if you'd like.' Merritt raised a hand in the air as though we were still in the 4th grade. I raised an eyebrow at him.

'Will that cost us?'

'I'm not going to charge you for a couple of slices of toast.' I said, shooting Ben a glance who nodded in response. We'd only be making 50 cents if we did charge them and if I started fussing over cents and quarters, that might be pushing it a little too far.

'The doors open at 8:30 so there might be people milling around after that, people that we've allowed in obviously - '

Either myself, Ben or Claude had to man the front desk at all times so that we could let the appropriate people into the building and send the others away. The only people who knew the code for the door were myself, Ben, Claude, the people directly involved in a production and now the 4 Horsemen. It was a security measure that we'd only implemented last year when people had started trying to sneak in and steal stuff.

'You're obviously free to do your laundry and - ' Merritt raised his hand again and I sighed, my mouth involuntarily sliding up into a small smirk. 'And no, that will not cost you other than if you break my machine because in that case you'll be buying me a new one. You're free to do whatever you want but myself and Ben have work to do so we won't always be free - '

'We're meant to be keeping a low profile.' Atlas said, lifting his eyes up from his beer bottle towards me. Funny. I didn't have him down as the beer type, not that I was really sure what his type was yet but - 'So we're not going to be walking around town anyway,'

'To be fair, that probably won't make much difference.' Ben said slowly. 'Not everyone has a TV.' I wondered whether the horsemen had realized that they were in the poorest corner of Washington Heights which was one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York to begin with.

'That means we can leave the building.' Jack said cheerfully with a smile.

'But it's not just the poorest - ' Ben said, an edge in his voice forcing me to meet his eyes. He'd read my thoughts perfectly and now he knew exactly what I was thinking. Were we really going to go down this path? 'It's important for them to know,' he murmured, which was pointless really, seeing as everyone's attention was focused on us anyway. 'They might get hurt.'

I sighed, turning back to look at the Horsemen. Ben was right, as per usual. They had to be aware of what was going on so that they could protect themselves accordingly. 'There's quite a lot of gang activity in the area.' I said slowly, trying to think of the best way to fully explain what was happening.

'As in gang gang?' Lula asked, shifting slightly in her seat and I nodded. Dylan didn't look surprised which he meant he was extremely good at hiding it - which I expected, seeing as he'd been an FBI agent - or he already knew this.

'Yeah. There's a couple of major groups and they run around together and are fiercely loyal to their leader and carry guns and do drugs - '

'But you guys shouldn't have a problem.' Ben said hurriedly.

'No, none of you exactly look like the gang type.' I said, Ben's attempts to lighten the mood with his words obviously falling flat. 'But still, you need to be careful if you're going out in the evening or at night. Some of them aren't the most understanding and they're usually not in the mood to be negotiating for your safety.'

'You're really promoting the area.' Atlas dryly, swirling the beer around his bottle. 'You're going to make me want to stay here more than I already do.'

And that was harsh. But for once I ignored his sharp tone and the roll of his eyes. If he wanted to ignore my words and get beaten up in an alley, then that was his business.

'Well, that's the truth.' I said, shrugging my shoulders. 'And I'm off to bed.' Ben ruffled my hair as he walked past me into the storeroom, presumably to brink out another crate of beer. 'But if you need anything just give me a shout.'

I didn't particularly want any of them to give me a shout but I had to put it out there. Dylan gave me a smile and a wave as I left the room, taking a sharp left, then a right and took the set of stairs that led up to the dressing rooms, that doubled as our bedrooms.

I knew every single inch of the place - every nook and cranny in the building, the quickest way to every room and the floorboards that you needed to avoid if you wanted to sneak around the place at night. And while I'd undoubtedly stepped on every inch of floor the place had to offer, the place had suddenly started to feel a whole lot smaller. And that was because of the 5 new people that had been forced into my proximity.

It wasn't anything specifically to do with them, either. I'd just gotten used to it being myself and Ben for the last couple of years and now I felt like I had to figure everything out again while the dynamic of the place shifted.

But a room that had always been mine and had been mine for the last 25 years - and was also my dressing room that I shared with Claude, Lucy and Yasmin who played Vanessa, Danielle and Carla in the show - was the room right at the end of the corridor that I was pretty sure had been a bathroom a long time ago.

I switched on the light and locked the door behind me, the couch already pulled out in the double bed from when I'd done it an hour ago. I pulled off the leggings and striped shirt that I'd been wearing and threw on my pajamas - a pair of sweatpants and a faded camisole - as well as brushing my hair.

I surveyed my room as I lazily brushed my teeth; I really needed to tidy up at some point. Ben would say that I was crazy and that my room was far cleaner than his would ever get but I still picked up on the way the ornaments on top of my dresser had been pushed out of the pattern I'd carefully planned out and the way that the curtain of beads I had over the window had become tangled after months of people brushing against it.

The constant limbo of having to transition between a dressing room and my bedroom didn't help - half the time it was being used for my comfort and the other half of the time it was being used as a holding pen. It meant I never had of the room to myself for any extra furniture, other than the dresser that was squashed in the corner and my pull-out bed.  
The costume racks took up a whole wall, as did the mirrors, tables and chairs that also littered the room.

It also didn't help that I was a serious hoarder and had a deep sentimental attraction to pretty much every single item I owned. This made throwing things away almost impossible, hence the overflowing state of my drawers. Everything in it had been systematically stuffed in to the point where I couldn't physically fit anything else in.

But I didn't care. It made me happy - the beads that cast hazy shadows across the room, the dreamcatcher that hung from the ceiling that I'd had for a decade, the inordinate amount of cushions and throws that I had on my bed. Everything was colourful and bright and vibrant and that was what made me happy. Ben and his trash bag could piss of; I didn't need to get rid of anything.

I switched off the light and climbed into my bed, ignoring the deep creak that sounded as I wriggled down and pulled the cover over me. My bed was creaky and 11 years old but I didn't care; it had originally been the sofa in my Dad's office but when my bed had broken, back when I was 14, that one had been thrown out and I'd inherited this one. We couldn't afford a new one at the time and it had just stuck over the years.

In some ways, it was like me - I had moved here and never left. But I didn't see a problem with that, that was just what I knew.

I rolled onto my back as a loud giggle reverberated through the floorboards: Lula. Ben was probably explaining some hilarious anecdote and undoing the damage that I caused by telling them that they should be worried about their safety. Worried probably hadn't been the right word.

Vigilant was probably more accurate, because if you didn't have your eyes open or your wits about you then things could dangerous in the blink of an eye.

The group let out another laugh and rolled onto my side, facing away from the wall with the cover pulled up over my ears. Ben had always been better at talking to people than I had - I tended to get annoyed very quickly and just shut down. Ben had a genuine kindness that always made people want to open up while I was more...grumpy.

This time, it was Ben's laugh that I picked out of the crowd. Jack or Merritt were probably recalling some amazing story about their travels and the behind the scenes details that the medias hadn't picked up on. I sighed, closing my eyes but knowing that I wasn't going to be able to sleep until they stopped having the party that they were having downstairs.

Atlas had been right about the walls being thin.


	6. 5

I rolled onto my back, my room still cloaked in darkness aside from the sliver of moonlight that shone through the curtain. I could hear the rain thundering outside, smacking against the window to the point where it almost made me wince. It must have been the rain that woke me up.

I pulled my legs up to my body, frowning at the way the sheets seemed to cling to me. My skin felt wet and as I ran a hand through my hair to pull it away from my face, the matted curls snagged around my fingers. Had I had some kind of nightmare that I couldn't remember that had caused me to start sweating so badly?

All I knew was that I was cold and wet and uncomfortable. And while I was prone to waking up covered in sweat because a nightmare had got a little bit too real in my mind, the last time that I'd felt like this was -

Oh shit.

I shot up, my long hair sticking to the sides of my face, the rain still thundering in the background almost like it was taunting me. My room, like a couple of others in the theatre, had a history of damp problems that never seemed to go away no matter how many times we tried to patch them up. And as I pushed the hair from my eyes, feeling the slickness of my skin, I knew that the heavy rain had started to drip through the ceiling.

That was just fantastic.

I looked up but the room was too dark for me to see the full extent of the damage, which was probably a good thing; I didn't need to be able to see it anyway, I could feel just how much moisture had sunk through the ceiling. Or was that just my mind playing tricks on me again, jumping to the worst conclusions like it often did?

I sighed, peeling the covers off my legs as I kicked them over the side of the bed. I had to do something - I couldn't stay like this all night. But I also didn't want to turn on the light to find out the full extent of the damage - at least when I was sat in the dark, I could remain blissfully ignorant about how bad things were and how much money we were going to have to dig out the biscuit jar to have it fixed.

I had no clue what time it was, the room too dark for me to be able to read the clock and my phone lying somewhere I couldn't name from where I'd carelessly left it last night. I guessed the early hours of the morning, judging from how I could glimpse the moon through the curtains. The rain was supposed to keep up until lunchtime and if I didn't do something now, the room was going to be flooded by the time we got to that.

I shakily stood up, trying to brush off the uncomfortable feeling of water sticking to my skin and the coldness that had seeped into my bones. I held my hands out in front of me, the disorientation hitting me. There was something about being drenched, with my hair falling in a matted rope down my back that made me lose all sense of my orientation.

Where was my phone? I usually kept it on my nightstand, but then again I didn't normally have my mind occupied with when the horsemen would be shutting up and I would be able to finally get some sleep. And -

I slammed into the floor and banged my head, my foot throbbing as I dragged the costume rail down with me. The clang reverberated in the darkness around me as I quietened my moan by clamping my hand over my mouth.

Fuck. That hurt.

And now, as well as being sopping wet, I had a headache, my foot felt like it was about to fall off and my pride was bruised.

Fuck.

I raised my head at the soft knocking at the door, wriggling my foot in an attempt to push the clothing rail lose. 'Is everything okay in there?'

Of course it was Ben. He was such a light sleeper that it had been almost impossible for our parents to sneak around on Christmas Eve and arrange all of our presents because he always woke up in the process. And now as I crawled to onto my knees and pushed myself to my feet, ignoring the shooting pain in my foot and trying to regain my pride that had been scattered over the floor, I hated him for it once again.

'Yeah, I'm fine - ' I murmured, hoping that Ben was the only person that I'd managed to wake up. I'd never be able to live it down if the horsemen had to see me dripping with rain water and burning with anger. 'But no, the roof's leaking again - '

I finally found the door, my hands fumbling over the lock as I pulled it open. Ben was stood with a worried expression on his face, his hair ruffled from sleep and his eyes squinting in the semi-darkness. It was annoying how alert he looked while his body was still being fueled by sleep.

'Fuck,' He quietly murmured as he took me in, his eyes widening and I rolled my eyes, folding my arms. Surely I didn't look that bad. Although, judging from how I felt I probably did.

'Do I really look that bad?' I whispered and Ben nodded, pursing his lips. 'My hair feels gross.'

'What's going on?' My eyes shot to down the corridor where, slowly emerging through the darkness, I could see the wiry figure of Atlas coming down the corridor.

Great. Now he could see what a state I was in too.

'Oh.' I rolled my eyes as he came to a stop beside Ben.

'Yes, oh - ' I whispered as angrily as could while keeping my voice as low as possible. Ben sighed and shook his head sadly, undoubtedly imagining the amount of money it was going to take to get the roof fixed.

'Well, you can't carry on sleeping in there - ' He said, gesturing to my room. 'No one can. It's a health hazard.'

'Can't you fix it?' I pressed, knowing that Ben's expertise meant that he'd had to fix every appliance within the theatre at least once. He smirked a little.

'There's no point fixing it yet anyway, not until the rain's passed. And judging from how you currently look like a drowned rat, I think this is going to take a little more then my DIY capabilities.' I self-consciously wiped some water away from my lips on the back of my hand, adjusting the straps of my cami as I did so. It wasn't like I thought I'd have to talk to anyone in my pjs and now I was stood in front of J. Daniel Atlas, the king of first impressions and scathing comments.

'Really?' I continued, concentrating all of my attention on Ben's face and not on the way Atlas was running his hands through his rumpled hair.

'I think we're going to have to invest some serious money into it. We should have really done it a long time ago but...'

I wasn't entirely listening to what Ben was saying, the water trickling down my back and the man stood in front of me both having something to do with it.

Or rather, I was trying to avoid how annoyingly hot Atlas looked. His hair was disheveled, tufts sticking up from where he'd ran his hands through it, and the matching flannel pjs that he was wearing instantly made me pause. Because I didn't know anyone who actually wore matching pjs to bed, not even Ben. 

It was strangely attractive. Who knew that pjs could be such a turn-on?

I, on the other hand, looked like I'd just climbed out of a trash can. I felt like it too.

'So what's your genius idea?' I asked Ben, watching him warily look over at Atlas and bite his lip. What was he -

Oh hell no.

'No.' I said sharply, before Ben could even open his mouth. I knew what he was implying with that look and the answer was hell no. 'No. I'd rather sleep on the roof than share with Atlas - '

'That's quite rude,' Atlas mused but I shrugged him off, glaring at Ben. I knew that I couldn't sleep in my room but I was also not on board with sleeping with a cocky, rude, outrageously attractive guy that I'd met only 12 hours earlier. 'What's your problem?'

'You're arrogant and annoying and I don't want to - '

'Margot - '

'Don't 'Margot' me!' I hissed at Ben, my voice cutting through the eerie silence.

'There's no other spare beds!' Ben shot back. 'And you're not sleeping on the floor. You're going to have to do it before you wake up everyone else!'

'They're all deep sleepers, nothing's moving them.' Atlas murmured but Ben ignored him. So was Atlas used to being awake at night while everyone else slept on?

'Have you even asked him how he feels about sharing with me?' I gestured to Atlas, knowing that the look in Ben's eye meant Atlas didn't have much choice in the matter but I was still trying to find loopholes in this argument that didn't end with me sounding like a fool.

I knew it was stupid that I didn't want to. That I'd only just gotten used to sleeping alone, with only the sound of my own breathing for company, and the peace that it brought. I didn't really care that Atlas was an ass - I still wouldn't want to share a bed with him if he was the nicest human on Earth.

'Seeing as we're scrounging off you, it doesn't seem like I have much choice - ' Atlas muttered and Ben raised an eyebrow at me as if to say 'take that'.

'I hate you so much - ' I murmured to Ben, sighing in defeat. I was going to have to. I was going to have to force myself to do it.

'I know.' Ben knew it too. He knew that he was pushing me.

'I hate you too,' I said to Atlas, running a hand through my wet hair and he glared at me.

'It's not my fault - ' He started making his way back to his room and I started to follow but stopped. I was going to have to change and dry myself off as best I could. I couldn't sleep like this.

'Give me a minute - '  
***  
Once I'd changed out of my wet clothes and into a pair of leggings and an old long-sleeved tee, my hair tied back into a plait, I cautiously made my way into Atlas' room.

The first thing that I noticed was that it was impeccably tidy. If it wasn't for his suitcase that was sat in the corner, and the scattering of random objects on the dresser, you wouldn't be able to tell that anyone was even staying in there. He must have tidied it up himself.

I hadn't shared a bed with anyone for nearly a year. And you only had to look at how that turned out for me to understand why I felt slightly awkward as Atlas moved over for me to take the place next to him.

I nestled myself into the covers, letting my head hit the pillow and embracing the warmth of the sheets. Atlas was lying on his side, facing away from me, so I couldn't see what he thought about this whole thing. At least that meant I wouldn't have to cope with the awkwardness of meeting his gaze.

'If you dare touch me or - '

'Got it, no touching.' Atlas murmured, cutting me off. I sighed, tucking my feet up under me and wrapping the duvet even tighter around me. Outside, the rain still hadn't let up.

'You'd better not snore - '

'It's not like I can control it or anything...'

'Why have you moved so far over there?' Atlas had wriggled to the far opposite of the bed, almost to the point where I was worried he was going to fall off. Worried was the wrong word, though.

'So you don't have a reason to shout at me.' I didn't know how to respond to that. I didn't have the energy to think of a witty response, anyway. 'And I'm definitely not going to mention the smell - '

'Shut up.' I hissed, rolling onto the other side so I didn't have to glare at his back. The second that I woke up in the morning, I was going to run to the shower before anyone else and wash the stagnant rainwater off me.

I tried not to think about the smell.

After a while, I could hear a quiet mumbling coming from the far side of the bed. Atlas did snore but it wasn't loud enough for me to call him out on it. It was quite endearing, really.

I tried keeping my eyes open for as long as I could, the anxious, tight feeling in my chest making it difficult for me to relax. But the bed was warm and comforting and wasn't soaked with rainwater. And as much as I hated to admit it, the sound of someone's breathing was strangely comforting.


	7. 6

I could feel the warm rays of the sun warming my face - that was the first thing that I recognized. Tiredness still ran through my body, my eyelids felt too heavy to open, and my muscles felt awkwardly stiff as I stretched slightly. I didn't want to get up yet. I didn't know what time it was, the sun warming my face gave me some indication, but I knew that my body and my mind wasn't ready to start ticking again yet.

As I drifted in and out of my delirium, I picked up the quiet murmurings of some familiar voices. I didn't realize that the walls were so paper thin that I could hear noises from downstairs even when I was in the waves of sleep.

'Wake her up - ' That was a girl's voice. It wasn't Claude though. I could identify her voice anywhere. But who was the her? Me? Someone else?

Whoever it was, I didn't care. All I knew was that I didn't want to wake up any time soon because every part of my body felt like it was being weighed down with lead.

'No, because she'll kill me.' That voice felt very close to me, so close in fact that I could feel the vibrations of their voice tickling my ear. I could feel the pounding of their heartbeat. I moved slightly, my hand cramping up, and heard someone sigh.

Wait a minute...

Someone else was talking about taking a picture because they looked like a teddy bear but I wasn't concentrating on that. I was slowly becoming more aware of my surroundings as the cloud of sleep disappeared from my mind and my brain started, very slowly, to put the pieces together.

I opened my eyes and instantly wanted to close them again. I was half-lying on top of Atlas, my hand clutching his shirt and my legs tangled with his. Heat flooded my skin. I must have rolled over in the night, forgetting that I wasn't alone in bed and -

Fuck.

I accidentally caught Atlas' eye in my attempt to look like I was still sleeping, catching the shock and almost worried expression that he wore on his face. God, this was embarrassing. And a perfectly good example of why I didn't share beds with people.

I quickly untangled my limbs and rolled onto my side of the bed, ready to run into the shower to clear the smell away from me when I realised the 3 other people that were in the room.

It was Lula, Jack and Merritt that I'd heard talking. Merritt was clutching his phone, looking gleeful. I didn't speak. My face was so hot with embarrassment I could hardly think. 

'What the fuck?' I gasped, hurriedly running my hands through my hair as I scanned each of their faces. Why the hell had Atlas called them in here? I was disheveled and still hadn't showered from last night and now every inch of my skin felt like it was burning with shame. 'What the fuck?'

I stormed out of the room before Atlas could answer, heading for the bathroom without a second glance behind me. I was on the verge of crying with frustration.

I could hear Dylan and Ben talking in their room but I couldn't face anyone right now. Not when I felt so gross and hot and sticky. I slammed the bathroom door shut and locked it behind me, leaning against the cool wood and letting out a sigh.

I didn't want to think about what was currently sitting in my hair from last night. I didn't want to think about how all the horsemen had now seen me in that state, as if I always woke up in the morning looking disgusting and that I crawled on top of men every night for a hobby.

Why the hell did Atlas get the others? That was what I couldn't understand. Why not just wake me up or push me off or something that didn't result in me turning into a humiliated mess.

I wasn't going to cry. It was too early in the morning for that. I was going to take a shower, wash all the gunk off me and then reconstruct the image that I'd showed to the horsemen.

And then I was going to kick Atlas' ass and ask him what the fuck he'd been thinking. 

I switched on the shower, watching the stream of water trickle down into the bath as I started shedding my clothes. I wanted the water cold. I was filled with too much heat already.

***  
After washing my hair twice and standing under the cold water until I'd calmed down a bit, I got dressed into a stripy dress and made my way downstairs to make breakfast. I didn't speak to anyone, aside from a casual 'morning' to Ben, and completely ignored the horsemen who were crowded around the dining table.

I noticed that Atlas' eyes followed me as I entered the room but I didn't look back as I made my way into the kitchen and started pulling out the ingredients I needed for porridge. I had it for breakfast almost religiously, mainly because it was simple but also because I used Dad's recipe and it reminded me of him.

The door leading to the kitchen was semi-shut but I could still hear the murmurs of Ben and the rest of the horsemen outside. I had no idea whether Ben knew about what had happened this morning but seeing as it had involved all of the horsemen I doubted it would be long before someone told him.

My face started to feel warm as I remembered the memory and tried to push it to the back of my mind as I mixed the oats and milk together in the pan. I didn't care what Ben had said - tonight I'd sleep on the floor if that was my only option.

I looked up as the door opened and Ben stepped inside, dressed in his usual t-shirt and jeans, and clutching a handful of dollars. I hadn't even talked to him about charging them. In fact, I remembered telling Merritt that they didn't need to pay. Had they given up the money voluntarily? 'That's 5 orders in, 6 if you include yours.' Ben knew my breakfast habits inside out, not that there was much to learn as I practically always had porridge.

'On it.' I said stiffly, watching as he started brewing the kettle and popped 2 slices of bread into the toaster. I could feel the tension in the room - it was amplified even more because of the small size of the room - and knew that it wouldn't be long until Ben asked me why I looked so uncomfortable. I rolled his eyes as he tapped his fingers against the countertop.

He so knew.

He knew me better than I knew myself and was also annoyingly perceptive when it came down to things like this. Or, someone may have told him. It had probably been Atlas bragging about it because he seemed cocky enough to try that.

Fuck. Why was I so damn awkward?

'You okay?' I tried to look nonchalant as I nodded.

'Yeah, fine...'

'You sure?'

'Yeah. And the porridge is almost ready - ' I met Ben's gaze by accident as I looked up, the feelings of embarrassment creeping back into my skin. I wasn't going to crumble in front of him and show how uncomfortable the whole thing had made me. I didn't want him to worry about me. And I also didn't want to ruin Ben's image of us all living together in one happy family.

I couldn't pull myself away from his gaze, though. His eyes looked exactly like Mom's had, soft and brown and warm. Mine were harder and looked more like Dad's - still brown but colder and with a dash of green.

'Okay.' He said finally, as his toast popped out of the toaster and he placed them onto his plate. 'I'll get the honey out for you.'

I always had my honey with 2 tablespoons of honey. That was the way Dad used to make it for us when we were kids and now I couldn't have it without.

I ladled the porridge out into six bowls while Ben started spreading marmite over his toast. If my obsession was with honey, his was marmite. All my attempts to convince him that it was in fact frogspawn had fallen on empty ears.

I arranged the bowls of porridge on a tray and carried them out into the ballroom, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on a spot on the table rather than looking any of them directly in the eyes.

Dylan was casually reading his newspaper and shot me a smile as I passed him his bowl and spoon. He didn't seem to know about what had happened, at least he wasn't acting if he did. Maybe Atlas hadn't said anything yet? Maybe he just hadn't found the right moment?

I passed the rest of the bowls around, saving Atlas' for last. If I could have eaten his porridge I would have but even I knew I couldn't stoop that low.

I reluctantly passed him the bowl as Ben came out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of cup's of tea. Dylan instantly started spooning sugar into his tea from the bowl on the table. Both the salt and sugar were out, Ben must have thought we'd need the salt for something.

And as Atlas, deftly ignoring my gaze as he looked up, started telling the table that they needed to figure out what the hell they were going to do in Washington Heights, an idea started to form in my mind about what exactly what we could do with the salt.

Next to me, Ben was saying that the theatre had been booked again for tonight by a yoga group. He didn't even need to tell me really, they booked the theatre every week for their classes and it would be more worthwhile if he told me that they hadn't booked the theatre.

My fingers tapped anxiously against the table. Atlas was leaning over Dylan's shoulder, pointing at something in his newspaper, his hand clutched around his spoon, ready to start spooning sugar onto his porridge

Without pausing, I quickly swapped the sugar and salt bowls around, holding my breath. If Ben had seen anything, which I doubted seeing as he was staring down at his phone, he didn't say anything.

I suppressed my smirk as Atlas turned back to his porridge, spooning what he thought was sugar onto his porridge. No one called him out on his mistake either because no one seemed to be paying much attention.

I smiled slightly as I started squirting the honey into my bowl of porridge and Atlas brought the spoon of porridge to his lips. Any minute now...

He furiously spat the mouthful of porridge back into his bowl and shot me a glare. 'What the hell? Why's it so salty?' Jack and Merritt started teasing him about his failing eyesight and the fact that it was nothing to be ashamed of but Atlas didn't take them on. He just stared over at me as I took the bowl from in front of him, as well as the bottle of honey, back into the kitchen.

I'd made enough to ensure he could have another bowl and, judging from the glare Atlas was shooting me, he'd quickly figured out that I'd switched the bowls and it wasn't simply a case of his failing eyesight. But I didn't care.

Because it put us on an equal footing.

Take that Atlas.

\- What do you guys think so far? Where do you think the story is going to go?


	8. 7

After breakfast, I shut myself away in the room that had been dubbed our 'office' even if it was really just the room that held my desk and the filing cabinets and was the room that any bill that landed on our doorstep got thrown into and started wading through the seemingly never-ending pile of paperwork.

If it wasn't tax returns, it was the mortgage for the theatre and if it wasn't the mortgage for the theatre it was the utilities bills. Considering myself and Ben's job descriptions were technically 'performer', most of the time we weren't doing very much performing and spent more time trying to stop ourselves getting thrown out or the roof collapsing.

As well as trying to make sense of the stack of bills we had to take care of, I also had to take a look at our finances and figure out just - after paying everything off - just how much money we had left for the next time a flurry of bills came through the doors and how much we'd have left over after that.

The answer was not a lot. But it was always not a lot. We were used to it by now.

The money that myself and Ben had in our bank accounts was basically our funds for the theatre; we had very little distinction over what was to be used on the business and what was to be used on ourselves. Because the theatre was more than just our business, it was whole entire lives and if it went down the drain then out lives did too.

I'd been at if for almost 3 hours when I finally put the pen down and rubbed at my eyes - the room only had 1 small window so it wasn't exactly bursting with light. Ben had gone out shopping but I knew he wouldn't be back for a while and the last time I'd seen the horsemen, they'd been messing about on the ballroom floor.

When it came down to it, Ben was always the one who went out to the shops and I was always the one who sorted out the bills. Ben joked that it was because I was the cleverest out of the 2 of us and he had stronger arms for carrying the shopping bags - and while I could have given him a run for his money in the muscle department seeing how strong you had to be to do any kind of trapeze work, the former was definitely not true.

Just because I'd been to college - leaving my parents and Ben drowning in debt for 1 year - didn't mean that I was any cleverer than Ben. He was responsible for the running and maintenance of every single electrical item in the theatre, even down to my hairdryer. And he'd only had a 6 month apprenticeship at an engineering company before his boss died and the company had folded.

I still had a couple of more things that I needed to get done but my brief respite had shattered the walls of concentration that I'd built up over the last few hours and my curiousity started drifting away.

How was Ben? Would he back soon? What were the horsemen doing? Not that I really cared what they were doing, seeing as none of them had spoken much to me aside from some pleasantries. Why was I even thinking about them?

I'd seen Dylan step outside into the foyer earlier, his cell seemingly glued to his ear. Who'd he been calling? Or, rather, who had been calling him?

Deciding that now was a good a time as any to make myself a cup of tea, I tidied up the papers on my desk and started to make my way down on the ballroom floor. I could hear the horsemen laughing and shouting about something, some inside joke that they must have with each other that I couldn't understand.

I knew that Claude was supposed to be coming over later or was going to try to, seeing as she had to spend a lot of time with her Mom at the moment because she'd broken her hip a couple of weeks ago falling down some stairs. I'd be able to laugh and joke around then.

At least some of us were having fun.

But when I was halfway down the stairs I ground to a halt, my eyes pinned onto the ballroom floor beneath me. The horsemen had started singing a song that I couldn't recognize, which was wholly down to the horsemen's singing rather than my limited song knowledge.

And singing was probably a relative term as I had to restrain myself from wincing as I continued down the stairs. At least they were attempting to keep a tune. It was less singing and more using the medium of song to prove a point. A point that I couldn't entirely grasp because I was partially trying to block out the noise.

Attempting and failing.

I walked up the far side of theatre, through a door and into the 'wings' - the side of the ballroom that were cloaked in curtains so the actors could have somewhere to stand when they came off stage and we could hide the set pieces that were needed - while the lights were currently switched off meaning that the horsemen wouldn't be able to see me unless they were directly looking at me.

I was definitely not trying to procrastinate talking to them. Definitely not.

I would put off talking to them about this morning even if it killed me.

Jack was trying to teach Merritt some elaborate card throwing technique and while he looked to be trying, the card didn't have any of the power or natural grace that it did when Jack threw it. In fact, I was slightly concerned that we were going to have playing cards lodged into the floorboards if Merritt didn't grasp the trick soon.

'Just explain it to me again. Slowly - ' Merritt sighed, shooting Jack an exasperated look. Despite Merritt's annoyance, Jack was grinning, probably at the fact he could do something that Merritt couldn't. I wore the same face, sometimes, when I beat Ben at scrabble.

'It's just a flick of wrist - '

'That's so helpful. How about in a different way from the last 17 times you've explained it...'

As my eyes slid around the stage, still concealed in my position behind the curtain, I realized that my unconscious mind seemed to be helping me to avoid having the conversation I didn't want to have. I'd completely blocked it from my mind, and my vision, that Atlas was sat in the corner of the stage at the piano, slowly leafing through some of the sheet music that was scattered on the top.

No. No way. I wasn't having it that Atlas could play the piano. I was not about to draw any comparisons between him and Ben. Nor was I about to let him play a treasured family heirloom.

It had been my dad who'd taught Ben to play when he was younger and he'd even given me a few lessons, though I'd quickly got fed up and stormed off somewhere.

Lula was sat at the side on what looked like a bar stool, a bag of chips in one hand. She was commentating on Merritt's attempts at throwing the cards as though she was watching a particularly entertaining sport's game and I had to stop myself from smirking when Merritt finally snapped and starting throwing the cards in Lula's direction.

Merritt then turned his attentions to Jack and started throwing the playing cards in his direction, while Jack fended them off with a laugh. Jack was boasting that he was better at everything than Merritt was which, of course, made Merritt even more frustrated so he starting saying how he was better at everything than Jack.

Maybe it was because they were in a theatre and the magic of the place was beginning to rub off on them or maybe they were just in a particularly musical mood, but whatever they process of thinking, when they both starting singing 'Anything You Can Do' both my eyebrows rose so high they nearly fell off my face.

And while I'd mocked their tone and their diction, at least they were trying. With a bit of practice they could probably turn out to be quite good singers. But I wasn't about to give them private singing lessons.

Unsurprisingly, Atlas didn't join in with the musical number, though I did notice him sporting a smirk as he flexed his hands and fingers out. He'd been staring at the piano for the last 10 minutes. Was he actually going to at least attempt to play it? Or was his mind elsewhere?

Maybe his mind was on the salty porridge he'd been served for breakfast? He had totally deserved it, even if I did feel a slight, irritating, pang of guilt in my stomach.

I hoped Dad wasn't cursing me from beyond the grave for ruining his perfect porridge by having it drowned in salt.

Merritt and Jack were still singing, now accompanied by Lula, with whatever card trick Merritt was supposed to be practicing long forgotten as playing cards turned into weapons which could be thrown at each other as they struggled to remember the words. As I ran through the words inside my own head, my eyes locked onto the door of the theatre which suddenly opened to Ben who was carrying six heaving shopping bags in his hands.

He paused by the door for a moment, clearly taking in what was happening in front of him, before nodding. 'Not bad - ' He called and I rolled my eyes. Ben was always positive. I'd yet to see anything that could dull his mood; even when our parents had died he'd been at least attempting to put on a brave face. 'Right Margot?'

Shit. I should have remembered that while you can't see into the wings from the stage, there was a certain angle from the door that gave you visibility to everything,

In other words, Ben had just blown my cover and the horsemen knew that I'd been secretly spying on them. Or not so secretly now, thanks to Ben.

I stepped out onto the stage, shooting Ben another long look. I knew his ears had to be bleeding just as badly as mine had been. 'I know cats that can sing better than that.'

'Then how about we finish the song?' I rolled my eyes again. Ben loved any excuse to get me to sing with him and to get me to make a fool of myself. Not that I would because I could sing this song in my sleep, but still.

'I've not warmed up.' I said bluntly, ignoring the pleads that were coming from the horsemen. Aside from Atlas. He was still sat at the piano but now turned towards the center of he room, his face neutral. Did he want to hear me sing again? Or would he rather gouge his own eyes out with a fork?

'I am not falling for that - ' Ben said with a grin and I sighed, folding my arms. There was something about performing so closely the horsemen, given our relationship so far, that made me pause. They'd seen me at my most vulnerable - groggy and tired first thing in the morning - now I was going to have to build up my professional wall again.

But I couldn't say no when Ben was beaming at me like he was. I loved singing with Ben and I loved this song. I ran a hand through my hair and bit my lip. 'If I sing this with you and put all the shopping away, will you have a look at my ceiling?'

Ben gave me a look, the smirk clear on his face. For a moment I thought he'd say, but then he relaxed. 'Go on then. I might need a hazmat suit, but go on.' I turned back towards the horsemen as Ben fiddled around with the music and locked onto Atlas, who was staring at his hands.

The quicker Ben looked at my ceiling, the less likely the chance I'd have to share with Atlas again tonight. Because I did not need that, and my experience this morning, to be repeated.

FEATURED SONGS:  
\- Annie Get Your Gun - Anything You Can Do


	9. 8

Later that evening I heated up some pizza and fries for dinner, collecting in another $25, and was happy and somewhat surprised if I dared to admit it that no one commented on the fact that the pizza wasn't homemade, nor from the fancy takeaway in town. Because I did not have the time, the motivation nor the funds to do that.

Because maybe I'd presumed going into this whole 'having the horsemen staying with us for a couple of weeks' thing that they'd have more of a hero, celebrity complex about them. But, so far, nothing like that had come up. I couldn't even fault Atlas because I thought the was rude, not because he'd made any diva demands.

Now the horsemen had scattered back to their rooms or the bar because the yoga class were currently using the hall for one of their classes. I was stood in the corridor that lead to the dressing rooms, pacing up and down with my arms folded, as Ben took another look at the roof. He'd already taken one look at it but he wanted to check it again.

I only had to take one look at his face when he stepped out to know that there was no way on earth I was sleeping in there tonight.

'It's bad.' Ben said slowly and I rolled my eyes.

'I know that, otherwise I wouldn't have had to spend the night sharing with Atlas.' If Ben had noticed the way I only called him Atlas, while he referred to him as Danny, then he didn't mention it.

'I've never known it to get this bad before, though - '

'Brilliant.' Whatever tiny hope I'd had inside me that I'd be able to sleep in there tonight had been completely quashed. 'So you can't sort it out?' I was on the brink of pleading. There had to be something that Ben could do.

'This isn't just a dodgy light fixture.' Ben sighed, running a hand through his rumpled hair. 'We're going to have to get someone in to take a look at it.'

'I suppose it's about time.' I said finally, shrugging slightly.

'Yeah. But it means that we're going to have to fork some money out for it...'

'And we don't have a lot of money.' I finished. 'Because the mortgage is due soon and we've just done a big shop.'

'Basically.' Ben said, biting his lip.

This was the way we lived, the way we'd always lived. We'd had to learn how to budget and where to cut corners to make things cheaper the hard way because if we didn't, we'd have no money for when the mortgage and the bills came around - which was why I had to spend whole afternoons working out how much we'd spent and saved and how much we had left.

Because we weren't going back to only eating 2 meals a day, seeing as that was how much food we'd been able to afford at the time. No only had we both been hungry all the time, it had made us both miserable and I wasn't blind to the effect that living this way, with every penny a constant struggle to earn, could have on someone's mental health.

On the plus side, that was how I got to be so good at cooking - only having a limited number of ingredients meant you often had to get creative in order to flavour things. You had to learn how to make the cheap stuff taste good.

'How long have we got to sort it out? Before it all...' I trailed off because admitting the truth felt far too serious. But I knew that Ben knew what I meant - how long did we have before the whole roof collapsed with the weight of the water and I was left sleeping in an open top room.

'It should be fine for a week, probably a couple of days more. I've dried it out as well as I possibly can.' Good. So even though Ben wouldn't let me sleep in there, there wasn't any immediate concerns about the whole thing collapsing.

'So if we can get a bit more money off the horsemen...' I said slowly, hating myself for even thinking what I was about to say. 'Then we might just be able to afford it...'

Ben nodded, it showing clearly on his face how little he liked doing this. It wasn't that I wanted to have to make them pay for any substantial meal I gave them, but we simply didn't have many other options. 'Fine.'

'We are feeding them.' I reminded him, 'as well as letting them sleep here and guzzle our internet and electricity allowance.'

'I know.' Ben said, sighing again before turning and walking towards his and Dylan's room, his unspoken words floating in the air. Just because he knew it, didn't mean he liked it.

***  
As the yoga class were still around, I knew I couldn't do any singing or performing practice so instead I re-located to the kitchen to give everything a bit of a clean. This was another habit I had; I would spontaneously start cleaning and organizing things when I had nothing better to do.

But every so often I'd find myself loitering by the door, watching the teacher explain a particularly challenging move and the correct technique that was needed. I'd done similar yoga classes myself a long time ago, in order to increase my flexibility. Now I did my own classes seeing as I couldn't afford the weekly fee to keep my body supple. It did the same thing but I missed the comradery aspect that I'd never be able to re-create alone in my room.

It was the first time I hadn't seen the horsemen on the theatre floor, going through whatever the hell it was there'd been going through. I knew that Merritt and Dylan were at the bar because I'd passed them earlier, Dylan ensuring that they were paying for every drink that they reached for me. Jack and Lula were in their room, or at least I thought they were, and -

I looked up at the quiet shuffling of footsteps and turned to see Atlas leaning against the door frame as I wiped the cleaning cloth across the worktop.

Great. Because the day couldn't possibly get any better, could it?

'Can we talk?' Atlas asked, his hands in his pockets. I shrugged, turning my attention back to the worktops.

'What about?' The anxiety was gnawing in my gut. I did not want to talk about this morning. I wanted to move past it. I wanted to forget that it had ever happened.

'This morning.'

'What is there to talk about?' I responded automatically, the words sour in my mouth. Why did he insist on bringing it up? Had he enjoyed the experience of making me red with embarrassment? Was that it? Was he here to gloat?

To be fair, that did sound like something he'd do and probably enjoy.

'I wanted to say sorry for making you feel embarrassed like that.' I paused at his words, sighing deeply to cover my slight shock. Was he actually apologising? 'I just - I just panicked. I woke up and you were just, sort of, lying on top of me and I didn't want to wake you up but I was awake and - '

'Alright,' I cut him off and met his gaze for a brief second before looking away. 'I don't need to relive it.' I was slowly processing his words. He was apologising and I couldn't detect any self-satisfaction in his voice. He sounded sincere.

'So?'

'So what?' Atlas opened his mouth to reply but closed it again. I sighed, running a hand through my hair and taking in his appearance. I hated how cute he looked in his outfit - his blue shirt, blue jumper and pants that were almost slacks. It was annoying how he was the best-dressed guy that I knew and that the whole blue eyes and messy hair thing was the perfect way to worm into my heart.

But he was still Atlas, with or without his perfectly fluffy hair. 'So - '

My words were instantly cut off by the echoing of dull gunshots, somewhere outside. People started screaming and I had to suppress my want to roll my eyes. It was typical that just as I was about to make a grand dramatic speech, then something even more dramatic was bound to happen.

'Here we go again - '  
***  
5 minutes later, everyone had rallied on the ballroom and it was safe to say that, aside from myself and Ben, everyone was freaking out slightly. But Ben and I had gone through our usual gun-prevention measures: we'd locked every single door and window and turned off everything that we didn't need because we didn't need any electrical device being accidentally blown up by a tripped wire.

Gunshots were nothing new to me or Ben. You got used to the violent fighting in the streets from an early age so that, by now, we hardly even noticed it at all.

'What's going on?' Dylan asked and I looked out towards the yoga class, who were all still here but they'd abandoned their positions in favour of sitting on the floor and talking in hushed whispers. Ben shot me a look; we'd had to tell this story several times over the years.

'We weren't lying when we said this was gang territory. With that means gangs fighting over things and those fights tend to get violent quite quickly.'

'What kind of...things?' Merritt asked slowly. Atlas was stood next to him, his face a mask of neutrality. You'd never know that just a couple of minutes ago he'd been stood at my door, confessing his feelings.

Not that I'd reciprocated the gesture. The only thing I'd done was shoot questions at him.

'Guns, money, women - ' Ben said listing them off on his fingers. 'Drugs, cars...'

'But it's usually women.' I said, somewhat stiffly. 'There are some particularly misogynistic gangs around here.' And now a whole yoga class, too. Because that was exactly what I needed - a dozen more lives resting on my shoulders and the door's ability to stay locked.

Great.

Thankfully, there were no kids in the group or I probably would have started to hyperventilate. Kids always stressed me out because I started to get more paranoid than normal and inadvertently started to stress everyone around me out too. A group of adults I could handle. Myself and Ben knew what to do. We'd done it enough times before.

Jack had his arm slung around Lula's shoulders and even Dylan was looking a bit apprehensive. The yoga class seemed a tad more relaxed, many of them being locals and having put up with this kind of thing for a number of years. But that didn't mean they didn't looked scared out of their skin.

'I think it's safe to say that going out of those doors tonight probably isn't an option - ' I said, stepping forwards to address the whole room and raising my voice so that everyone could hear. 'So you're welcome to all stay here - we've got enough blankets and pillows and food for everyone. And you'll all be completely safe, I promise.'

It looked as though the theatre was, for tonight at least, turning into an even bigger boarding house than one than just housed the horsemen. We'd be able to start charging people soon.

But even my own thoughts couldn't cut through the stark silence that filled the room. Everyone was afraid to talk, to cough, to even breathe. Because while the walls were thick with bricks and mortar, the were thin in comparison the bullets that were raining down on the streets and were thin in comparison to the fear and panic that was radiating through the room.


	10. 9

We handed out all the blankets, sleeping bags duvets and pillows that we owned to the group and I noticed that the horsemen were also going through their belongings and handing out any extras that they had. I also made some porridge to keep everyone's hunger at bay and because I learned that there was nothing better to calm someone down than by giving them some comfort food drowning in honey.

I heard a few more gunshots ringing out into the street and I knew that Ben and other horsemen heard them too but no one mentioned it. It wouldn't do anybody any good to mention it; we were all feeling on edge as it was.

I didn't know if anybody had been hurt or killed. I could make a pretty good guess, based on what fights like this always seemed to end in but I didn't know for sure because I wasn't about to go outside and look. That was how you got killed.

Gang fights didn't care about the collateral damage or how many people they injured in the process. All the cared about was their one singular aim - whether that was to kill someone or to scare someone or to destroy their means of making money. As long as that was achieved, everything else didn't matter.

I'd saved a duvet and a pillow for myself and brought it down onto the ballroom floor, arranging it among the sleeping bags and blankets that had already been laid out. I wasn't going to sleep upstairs, whether I was with Atlas or not, when there was a group of scared people sleeping downstairs in my theatre.

I didn't mind what Ben or the others chose to do but I was doing what made me feel better and would allow me to sleep a little better tonight. Not that I was going to get much sleep tonight anyway, given how my stomach was doing backflips and my hands were profusely sweating, but I at least had to try.

Claude had texted me saying she was safely shut up in her house with her mom and had made me promise to text her every hour to let her know myself and Ben were okay. I was sure she'd sent the same identical text to Ben as well but I didn't call her out on it - she was protective by nature and at the very least, texting her would give my hands something to do and stop them from being so jittery.

As I composed the first of what would be many messages to Claude, I looked up to see Ben approaching me from the other side of the ballroom from where he'd been talking to the horsemen. They were nestled in their own pile of blankets and sleeping bags and it seemed that they too, alongside Ben, were also sleeping down here tonight.

'Everyone's feeling jittery.' I said quietly, by way of introduction, as Ben sat himself down beside me. I could feel the nerves radiating from the group as they talked in quiet voices and spooned up their porridge without ever eating it - they were to nervous to eat anything.

'We need to do something to calm them down.' Ben mused and I nodded.

'Agreed. We could sing some calm songs or something?' I said, turning to face him but Ben was already smiling. He had another idea.

'I think we can go one better than that.' He grinned and I frowned. What was he talking about? 'When I happen to be in the company of a group of world famous magicians, I'm going to make use of them.'

Of course. Why had I not thought of that?

Because magic wasn't really my thing. Creating magic through theatre and music, yes, but not actual magic.

'I'm sure I can convince them to do a couple of tricks.' Ben continued, shooting me a slightly confused look. 'You're not the only one who can come up with good ideas, you know?' I rolled my eyes and jabbed him with my shoulder as he started to gently poke me in the ribs.

'Haven't you got someone else to annoy?'

'And that means that we get a free magic show - ' Ben ignored me and continued, his eyes lighting up with some excitement that made me roll my eyes again.

'It's not magic, though.' I said firmly. 'It's carefully crafted deception with a fancy name that, for some reason, gets people all excited.' Ben narrowed his eyes at me and tapped my nose with his finger.

'Grump.' I pushed him away again and he jumped to his feet, ruffling his hand through my hair. 'You used to believe in magic when you were a kid.' He said and this comment made me pause, the jovial tone being suddenly replaced with a much more serious one.

'Then I grew up.' I said stiffly, staring down at my feet as I heard Ben sigh and walk away towards the horsemen, no doubt telling them about his brilliant idea.

I had liked magic when I was a kid - Dad had put little magic shows on for us all the time when we'd come home from school and he'd get Mom to join in with doing the puppets.

And maybe the aversion that I felt was because whenever I thought of magic, I thought of my parents. So whenever I thought of magic, I was reminded of the hollow feeling in my chest and that both of them were no longer around.

I didn't want to subject myself to any more pain that I had to.

***  
Ben, unsurprisingly, managed to convince the horsemen to put on a couple of tricks, giving them absolutely no time to prepare or to gather props. Everyone settled down in the middle of the floor, myself included as Ben had practically forced me to and was now holding onto my hand so I couldn't go anywhere. I kept glaring at him but he wasn't paying attention - his eyes were fixed on the stage that we'd erected by moving some curtains around.

Up first, it was Atlas. I didn't know whether to be happy about this or miserable. He was clutching a deck of cards in his hands because of course he was. Did he bring a deck with him everywhere he went?

As he stepped up onto the stage, I also noticed that he had donned a blue velvet jacket which suited him very well. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad - I could focus less on the actual magic and more on how good Atlas looked.

He jumped into some short but impressive tricks - or the rest of the room and Ben seemed to find them impressive anyway. I couldn't fault his manner, though. He was the perfect showman - charming and in control and definitely not as rambling or nerdy as he was in real life.

He was doing what I did whenever I did a performance - he had created a mask for himself.

I was on the brink of zoning out completely - my mind far too fixated on Atlas' jacket - when Ben gently nudged me and I was jolted back to my senses. Atlas was stood in front of me, his blue eyes boring into mine, a deck of cards clutched in his hand.

'Pick a card - ' He said gently, a charming smile on his face and I could feel every eye in the room locked on me. I could sense Ben beaming next to me, he'd probably specifically asked Atlas to make me part of his performance, and wondered if this was some kind of unspoken apology, since he'd been interrupted earlier.

I didn't have too much time to dwell on this, however, as the heavy silence hung in the air and I reached forwards to take a card from the pack, before passing it back to him.

He flashed me another charming smile and rattled off another corny yet endearing joke as he turned back to address the whole crowd. I didn't know I was even laughing until Ben winked in my direction and I stopped. Why was I even laughing? It hadn't been that funny, had it?  
***  
All of the horsemen, even Dylan, took to the stage to do a few tricks and afterwards, it was clear to see why they were so famous. Everyone in the room looked to have relaxed considerably and if the keychain wasn't still in my pocket, I might almost be able to forget that anything had happened at all. We might stand a chance of getting some sleep now.

'Should we do some songs?' Ben murmured next to me, as Merritt took another very dramatic bow and tossed his hat into the crowd. Honestly. 'It only seems fair because we've not actually done anything and we can show off how amazing we are - '

'You make an excellent point.' I replied with a smile, pushing myself to my feet as Ben made his way over to the piano and the horsemen settled down at the front of the group, 2 blankets stretched out between them.

'Any song requests?' I asked, rolling the sleeves of my cardigan up to my elbows as I looked out over the crowd and tried to deliberately avoid the wandering eyes of the horsemen. I heard someone mutter Taylor Swift and I looked over my shoulder at Ben who nodded and starting playing some opening chords.

Taylor Swift had basically been the only thing I'd listened to in my teen years so I knew every single song in her entire back catalogue, no matter how obscure. Ben, by default, knew almost all of her songs as well, on account of me singing them every second of the day.

Once I'd finished and the polite clapping started, I turned back to look at Ben. 'I suppose we have to have one from a musical, don't we?'

'The Last 5 Years?'

'Go for it - ' I confirmed with a nod, letting the opening chords ring out. Climbing Uphill was a good audience pleaser - as well as Shiska Goddess - because I had the ability to make it funny as long as I acted the hell out of it. And, judging from the small smirk that was curving on Atlas' lips, I wasn't entirely failing.

The real question was, why was I staring at his lips in the first place? I was obviously sleep deprived.

I did a small curtesy at the end, accepting the claps that were thrown in my direction and tried not to blush too furiously. 'I dare say we should all try and get some sleep.' I said, a quick glance at my watch telling me it was nearing 11pm. And while it might have been early for some people, the tiredness was beginning to drag at my limbs. 'But I'm not your mom so do what you want.'

'Are you sleeping down here?' Jack asked, as he attempted to untangle his legs from the blanket. I nodded.

'Ben said I can't sleep in my room. And I wouldn't want to impose on Atlas, would I?' Merritt and Jack instantly started laughing as I walked over to the piano and started shuffling the sheet music. I had no idea what Ben did but even when I'd tidied up, it seemed to become messy straight away.

Maybe I hadn't meant that to come out as harshly as it had sounded. But Atlas had been a dick and -

'Margot - '

'I didn't mean it like that.' I said instantly, turning round to face Atlas who was now stood in front of me, his velvet jacket swung over his arm. Shame. 'I'm sarcastic. I'm over dramatic.'

'I get it.' Atlas seemed to take an audible sigh of relief, his whole body seeming to relax. What did that mean? I narrowed my eyes slightly.

'That still doesn't mean that I'm your biggest fan.' I shot back quickly, pushing some hair from my face and crossing my arms. It didn't matter how good he looked in his velvet jacket - he'd still been a dick.

'What's a guy got to do?' He joked and I rolled my eyes. 'I'm really sorry, Margot.' He said sincerely.

'And I'm sorry about the salt.' I said with a sigh, even though it pained me slightly inside.

'That was a low blow.' Atlas said with a slight chuckle. 'I'd expect that from Merritt and Jack and Lula but not - '

'You've got a lot to learn, then.' I said, shuffling the papers into a neat pile. 'I have a twin brother and was brought up competing with him for everything. I was also brought up on practical jokes. So consider this to be just the beginning, Mr. Atlas.'

FEATURED SONGS:  
-Taylor Swift - Haunted (Acoustic)  
\- The Last 5 Years - Climbing Uphill 


	11. 10

Everyone slept fitfully that night and I knew that it wasn't because of the fact we were all sleeping on the floor. Even though I had the duvet pulled high up on my face I could still hear the echoes of the gunshots in the street and I knew that everyone else could to. I held my breath every time the trigger was pulled, dreading the sound of one smashing through a window or reverberating through the door.

Somehow, we all made it to morning - we were all groggy and tired, after only managing to catch a few hours of sleep at a time, but at least we were all alive and unhurt.

I made everybody another portion of porridge - thanking God that oats were cheap and could be bought in bulk - and collected back in the mountain of pillows and blankets that we'd loaned out. It was all just procrastination for the fact that we'd have to open the doors, eventually, and survey the damage that had been endured last night.

When everyone started to leave, each and everyone one of the yoga class members giving me a hug and thanking me, I partially held my breath as Ben unlocked the door and looked out into the street.

Ben went outside to check that no damage had been sustained to the theatre while I watched each person file out the door and head their separate ways. Outside, it was almost hard to tell that anything had actually happened last night; a closer look would bring up shell casings scattering the roads and some firearms thrown carelessly into the trash.

I couldn't help feeling nervous, only relaxing once Ben re-appeared in the door frame with a smile on his face. You could never be too careful with things like this.

It was how our Mom had died. She'd been killed in a gang fight, one that had been unnecessary and stupid and pointless. And yet she'd ended up with a bullet through her heart. And I couldn't take risks anymore when it came down to people's safety.

In an attempt to keep my mind focused on something else, I turned my attention to the Carnival Street Fair that was happening on Wednesday - just two days from now. I needed to get my costumes together as well as polishing up the routines that I was going to perform.

I had a collection of old and slightly tired leotards and costumes that I used for performances and I'd alter them myself with ribbon and sequins and whatever else I could find when I wanted to change them up a bit. This year, the vision that I had in my mind required some purple ribbon and, thankfully, the owner of the haberdashery shop as an old friend of our Mom's and she always gave us discounted rates.

I quickly brushed my teeth and my hair and changed out of my clothes from yesterday, now crumpled since I'd slept in them, into a fresh red patterned dress. The horsemen were gathered on the ballroom floor, the bags under their eyes evident of their restless sleep even if they were smiling and flicking playing cards at each other.

I saw Ben coming out of the kitchen, a cup of tea in his hand, and shot him a wave as I pulled my bag onto my shoulder and dropped my cell into it.

'I'm going out for a bit. You want anything?' Ben shook his head.

'A nap!' Jack shouted from behind him and I rolled my eyes as he dropped his head onto Lula's shoulder and started snoring loudly.

'See you later. Look out for - '

'I know.' I said briskly. cutting him off a smile. Ben knew that I was going to be careful. He didn't have to remind me every time I stepped foot out of the door.  
***  
I knew every single inch of town - every side street and every alley that there was to see, I'd seen multiple times. That was one advantage of having lived in one place for the entirety of your life: you got to know it pretty well.

As well as just knowing every street, I also knew every person and as I walked down the main street, my bag tucked close to my body as I moved, I could name every single person that I passed. Even when the time grew later and the shadier figures of society began to reveal themselves, I could name every one of them too - the drug dealers, the addicts, the lone-wolves. I'd gone to school with most of them. And I knew them better than most.

It wasn't hard to get caught up in the drug rings around here. It was one of the easiest ways to make money and in an area that was dominated with Hispanic immigrants and kids who didn't tend to last through high school, money was something that was quite hard to come by.

You could say it was almost inevitable that you, or someone you knew, would get mixed up in drugs. There wasn't much you could actually do about it.

Having said that, most people tended to avoid the gangs if they could and the reasons why were obvious - you only had to look at last to understand how violent, unpredictable and dangerous they could be. They were so ingrained in street culture, though, that it was difficult to stay out of their lives completely.

I knew for a fact that by the end of the week that I know every detail what had happened last week. That was how fast the gossip travelled around the streets, especially between the single, older ladies who clogged up the hair salons and had little else to do but speculate what was happening around them.

I brushed past a group of kids who seemed to be fighting over a bag of sweets and nearly tripped over a large wooden sign that was propped up against the wall, advertising the carnival in 2 days time.

It was something that had started a couple of years ago - someone had big ideas about rejuvenating life back into the streets and thought it would be a good way to make some money. Both of those things were true but that wasn't why I enjoyed it so much - the whole thing was just exactly my style: casual and bright and vintage.

I also didn't mind that the whole thing tended to attract a lot of tourists so we made had the possibility of making a fair bit of money.  
***  
As well as picking up more than enough purple ribbon for my costume, Sara also gave me reduced rates on some extra bits of fabric and some sequins. I'd known Sara for all my life - she was a long time friend of my Mom and Claude's Mom so it was nice to be able to catch up every once in a while.

The heat was beginning to develop and I really didn't want to be wondering the streets at midday: it wasn't that I didn't enjoy being out in the heat because I did, but I burned so easily that it was almost funny. I started walking a little faster, weaving my way through the streets that were starting to get crowded.

I had plans for the rest of the day, anyway. I needed to practice my routine in my costume, which was something I hadn't actually done yet, and I needed to leave plenty of time to alter it if anything went a bit dicey or any seams started to split.

And because I'd thought about every detail, I could still practice my routines even if the horsemen wanted to do whatever they'd been doing on the ballroom floor. I could practice up on my hoop while they were on the floor.

At least that way, if my costume got in the way of my routine, there was a chance one of them would be able to catch me. Not that that would actually happen. I did not need to fall into the arms of J. Daniel Atlas. We'd had enough awkward encounters already.

I looked up at the sound of someone calling my name, my feet halting as I searched for the source of the voice. Who had called -

Oh fuck. Fuck.

It was time to implement the 'keep your head down and keep walking' technique that I didn't regularly pull out but there was no way that I was having this conversation. My nerves were growing in my gut and I pushed my feet to move faster.

If I kept moving, he wouldn't be able to catch up with me.

'Hey! Margot!' He dashed from across the street so fast that I didn't have to react - he was standing in front of me, blocking my path, his eyes scanning my face in the intrusive way that I hated.

'You're alright? And the theatre? Things got a bit out of hand last night - ' I didn't bother answering, keeping my eyes anywhere but looking at him. There was a side street to my left that would take me home if I needed to - it would take me twice as long but at least it was another option.

'You look like shit.' It was hard not to spot the long cut that was running down his face, starting at his eyebrow and leading down his chiseled jaw. It was recent too, judging from how red and inflamed it looked. It wasn't difficult to guess it was a result of the fight that he'd undoubtedly been a part of.

'It's nice to know you still care,' He said with a grin that sent my stomach recoiling and I hastily stepped backwards as he moved closer towards me.

'You're not stepping any closer to me - ' I said sharply, my eyes scanning the street behind him. I could see at least 5 other members of his gang, all trying to look incognito but that was never going to work with me.

'It's just a scratch.' Aaru said with a nonchalant shrug, the sun reflecting of his obnoxious gold tooth.

'Who've you pissed off now?'

'Don't talk to me like that, Margot.' His voice went dangerously low, his smile curving into the smirk that I was all too familiar with. Just because we were outside in broad daylight didn't mean he wouldn't try something if he wanted to.

'I can talk how I want - ' I turned to go down the side street, my chest feeling uncomfortably tight as I tried to keep my breathing steady, when he suddenly grabbed my forearm and jerked me towards him.

'Get off me!' I tried to wrench my arm from his grip but he was too strong- I could feel his hand clenched around my wrist, his fingers singeing my skin. His eyes were dark and steady; there was no sign of the light hearted, golden-green eyes that I'd grown so familiar with.

I wasn't going to show my panic in my eyes.

I hadn't seen him for a whole week. I thought he might have finally, finally, have given up. But I was only kidding myself. That was never going to happen.

A restraining order meant nothing to him. It really was just a piece of paper to him.

'I want to talk to you.' He said, his voice low and quiet.

'Well, I don't. Let go - ' I pulled my arm again but his grip tightened, his fingers painfully digging into the bone so tightly I knew that it would bruise. 'You're hurting me! Let go!'

I pulled my arm from his grip, stepping backwards few paces so there was a comfortable distance between us. I could still feel his fingers on my arm, burning the tender skin of my wrist.

'Please. Leave me alone.' I pulled my bag up my shoulder from where it was beginning slip, pushing the hair from my eyes. I wasn't going to let my voice shake. 'I'm not a part of your life anymore! You need to accept - '

I jerked backwards, my hands flying to my face where I could feel the droplets of blood beginning to trickle down my face from my nose. My eyes began to water as the stinging grew more intense. I looked up at him, his fist raised, his eyebrows pulled taut and angry, like a snake ready to strike.

Strike again.

'You will always be a part.' He said slowly, dragging out every word so much that I felt as though he was dragging a knife across my skin.

I didn't respond, just turned on my heel and hurried down the side street, pinching the bridge of my nose in an attempt to stop the bleeding.  
***  
The bleeding still hadn't stopped by the time I was back at the theatre and as I pushed open the doors, I could hear Lula laughing about something. The horsemen were still on the ballroom floor, doing whatever they were doing. Hopefully I'd be able to sneak past them and clean myself up without them noticing anything.

I moved as quickly as I could through the seats, my heart pounding as I clamped a hand over my nose. I just needed to -

'Margot? What happened?'

Shit. Atlas. Why was he so observant? Little shit...

'It's nothing.' I said with a shrug, forcing myself to sound relax. 'Just a nosebleed.' Ben walked out from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a cloth and his eyes instantly met mine. The stinging was intensifying with the more blood that dribbled down my face. I couldn't be bothered with Ben. I couldn't be bothered with him judging me.

'Fuck off, Ben - ' I spat as he opened his mouth, running up the stairs that led to the back door of the ballroom that led up to the dressing rooms and bathroom.

'I'm going to kill him!' I heard Ben shout, his voice angrier than I'd heard in a while.

'You couldn't just stick with the fucking nosebleed thing could you?' I bellowed back, my voice scratching as I pressed down too hard and a shot of pain flooded through my face. 'You're such a big fucking help Ben!'

I was half-crying by the time I made my way to the corridor, not bothering to drop my bag off at my room but heading straight for the bathroom, the blood beginning to coat my fingers.

Aaru really knew how to pack a punch. And I should have remembered that. Because it wasn't the first time.

\- Things took a bit of a turn in this chapter! What do you make of Aaru? What significance do you think he has? Thanks for reading!


	12. 11

The bathroom door was shut and locked, which had been a good move on my part, as the blood started to drip through my fingers and combine with the tears that were rolling down my face. It looked worse than it was. I looked worse than I was.

Armed by pinching the bridge of my nose with one hand and a tissue in the other, I started to clean up my face or at least attempt to. I really needed to get my nose to stop bleeding, or there was no point wiping the blood off because it would just be replaced with more.

At least my nose wasn't broken; Claude had broken her nose a couple of years ago and it hadn't been a pleasant experience for her, or for me, who had been the person to go with her to the hospital. I knew what a broken nose looked like and, thankfully, mine didn't look like that.

It didn't look much better though, if I was perfectly honest.

But I'd handled worse.

I threw the tissue into the bin with a frustrated sigh; there was no point me doing anything until my nose stopped bleeding.

I leaned back against the sink staring at the bathroom door, my ears straining to pick up the sound of voices coming from downstairs. Was Ben scrambling for words to try and explain what had happened? Or was he silently stewing in the kitchen, forcing himself not to go out and start kicking the hell out of Aaru?

It could have been either.

Why the hell had Ben had to go and say that anyway? I was doing perfectly fine with my nosebleed excuse - no one needed to be anymore the wiser, until Ben had to go and stick his foot in it and ruin it. I couldn't stay locked in the bathroom for ever. The horsemen were going to be asking questions now and they were questions that I didn't want to answer.

Ben was protective. That was just who he was. Losing our parents had turned him that way so I'd known he was going to react the way that he had. And that was what made the whole thing even more stupid.

Ben couldn't go out and kill Aaru even if he wanted to - which he obviously did - and even if he physically could - which he definitely couldn't. He'd never be able to get within a hundred meters of him before his gang mates were onto him, ever mind close enough to kick his head in or stick a knife in his ribs.

Ben might think he was strong, seeing as he went for a run every once in a while, but he was nothing compared to Aaru. But that was because half of Aaru's muscles were chemically engineered from the steroids that he swore by.

It would be like a weedy kid going against Captain America: there was no way that things would end well.

Forcing myself to look on the bright side, because that was what Ben always encouraged me to, at least I'd managed to get all the ribbon that I needed for next to nothing and that meant I could get to sorting my costumes out and running through my routines in them.

I suddenly shifted as I heard the creak of a floorboard outside of the door. Ben was probably stood outside, attempting to spy on me or so that he could catch me when I came out. He was always the one to try and talk about things which was something that I couldn't always get on board with.

I knew that he meant well and he was trying to look out for me but sometimes I just didn't have very much to say - things happened how they happened and you had to learn to roll with them.

My nose had finally stopped bleeding so I cleaned my face up, wincing slightly at the twinge of pain that shot through my nose every time I tapped it with my finger. That was just something I'd have to put up with.

I threw the tissues into the bin, ran a hand through my hair, and unlocked the door, startling Dylan who was leaning against the door frame. I stood, blinking in shock for a moment.

That was unexpected. Ben was now getting Dylan to speak to me because he knew there was a chance I'd listen to him and not shout in his face.

'Sorry.' Dylan muttered with a smile and stepped aside, gesturing for him to enter.

'You can use the bathroom now.' We both knew that that was not the reason Dylan had been stood there but I didn't wait around for him to say it. I swept past him, hearing him call my name as I passed but I didn't stop. He was going to ask what had happened and what he could do to help and I was going to say 'nothing' and 'nothing' for the billionth time in my entire life.

Because when you were on the wrong side of a gang, there was nothing you could do. They had a problem with me so the only way I was getting out of it was when I was dead - either by killing myself or giving into what they wanted which was as good as killing myself. By joining them and going with him, I was as good as dead anyway.

So my only option was to do neither of those things and to hold up until I came up with a better plan. Eventually, I'd find a crack in their armor - something would change whether with me or with them. Waiting for them to grow weak and living with the constant fear of bumping into them in an empty alley was a better life than being a slave to a gang who said they wanted me but really only wanted the money that they stole or blackmailed or killed for.

***  
Sewing the ribbon onto my costume had taken me longer than I had anticipated - mainly because I'd kept texting Claude - but eventually I managed to take myself down to the ballroom floor and find it deserted. Good. I didn't particularly like practicing with an audience because then there was pressure riding on my shoulders for me to get every move right.

I tied my hair up into a ponytail and started stretching out, the hoop already lowered because I'd remembered to pull the correct levers to get it down this time, instead of like last time where I'd forgotten and had had to run up to the control box and then run back down again.

I had planned on doing 2 performances on the hoop as well as 1 baton performance with Claude as well as the couple of songs that I always got dragged into doing by Ben. I needed to sort those out actually - pick the songs that I was going to sing and clarify the arrangement with Ben. Not that I had any available time, seeing as I was busy practically every moment of every day but I was sure I'd be able to carve out half an hour somewhere.

I usually did 2 different routines because not only did it mean I got to wear different costumes and enjoy myself more but we could also charge people a tad extra because there was more to see within the performance.

One of my routines was fast and a bit crazy but the one I was practicing for now - the one that I'd needed to purple ribbon for - was lyrical and my favorite costume out of the pair because it was a simple black leotard with a dusky blue thin shirt attached, which was now adorned with the purple ribbon.

I was practicing this one because I needed to give my costume a trial run but also because I did a lot of crazy swinging around in my other routine and seeing as I didn't know where any of the horsemen currently were, I didn't want to accidentally knock one of them out as they came onto the stage. I'd probably get sued for destroying the American economy or something.

I quickly did my own warm-up, stretching out my muscles and checking that I didn't have any random pains that I hadn't picked up on - you didn't want something to start feeling like agony when you were ten feet off the ground.

The height didn't even bother me anymore - not when I regularly climbed to the top of the fire escape for fun. It could take me away from everything that was bothering me - how much my nose was stinging, how I could still feel Aaru's grip on my wrist.

I'd spent years throwing myself around in the air now and making myself as flexible as I possibly could. Ben usually joked that I didn't need a superpower because I already had one.

I pushed myself into the splits, lifted my back leg off and arched my back, only looking up when I heard the patter of approaching footsteps. For God's sake...

'Do you mind if we use the rest of the floor?' Atlas asked and I bit my lip. I wanted to say no but even I knew that I needed to get over the abnormal panic I felt whenever someone watched me practice.

'Sure.' I could feel their lingering glances on my face as they passed, or I thought I could - it might have just been my anxiety kicking in. Merritt obviously noticed the hoop as he passed, pointing up to it with a smirk on his face.

'Do we need to catch you?' He joked and I rolled my eyes, swinging my legs round and pushing myself into a back bend to bring myself to stand. I noticed that Merritt's eyes widened and I smirked slightly.

'Funny, but no. If I fall, I'm meant to do it.' At least that was what I told people. But seriously, if I really did fall then it was probably because I'd pulled a muscle somewhere and the pain had caught me off-guard.

'I'm practicing for the carnival, I don't normally dress like this.' I didn't know why I felt so self-conscious; I practically lived in leotards during the daytime and it wasn't like no one had ever seen me in them. And while it didn't leave particularly much to the imagination as far as my curves were concerned, there was barely any cleavage poking through the top.

Maybe it was just my anxiety playing tricks on my mind again.

I jumped up and wrapped my fingers around the cool metal of the hoop, swaying slightly in the air as I got my bearings. The horsemen seemed to be sorting something out, some tricked it seemed like they'd been sorting out for days. I had no clue what it was for, though, seeing as I hadn't really spoken to them much. Ben had a better relationship with them than I did.

I started slowly going through my routine, holding each of the positions for a few seconds before I moved onto the next one. I knew that my body was used to the strain now but I didn't want to shock it straight away.

But it didn't matter if I had to grit my teeth in order to hold a position or I felt a jolt of nervous energy as I gripped onto the hoop with only one hand. That was why I did it. I loved it for that reason - the effort that went into it but the freedom that I felt, how streamlined and strong and graceful I felt. And -

I was thrust out of my own head by the sharp ringing of a cell. I looked over to the horsemen as I pushed myself into an upright position, hoping to see one of them digging their cell from their pockets. But no.

For fuck's sake, it was my cell obviously. I carefully lowered myself down to the floor and padded over to where I'd left my cell resting on top of a cabinet. But I almost forgot about it when Jack started cheering from behind me and started the applause that followed me and sunk its way into my brain as I pressed the cell to my ear.

They weren't being sarcastic about it either, each one of them had genuine smiles on their faces. I shrugged, feeling myself blush slightly, my eyes hovering over Atlas' smirk for the longest.

\- Margot's Costume (www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/562105597233094277/)


	13. 12

I knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before I heard from someone about what had happened last night - nothing every stayed quiet or a secret for very long. And after we rehearsed Heights and a couple of other singing numbers, the hall was to be loaned out to an AA group and several of the attendees seemed to know what had happened like the backs of their hands.

The fight had apparently been between Aaru's gang - they didn't have a gang name but everybody knew who they were - and the Bridgers who lived over near the Harlem river about their drug distributions and how the other gang's members kept getting in the way of their transactions.

It wasn't even a surprise that this was what is was about - it seemed like a never ending cycle of fights about drugs, fights about women, fights about money or fights about guns and there seemed to be very little chance of this cycle ever coming to an end. The gangs were too big, too powerful, too well endorsed by their criminal activities that fed their wallets to care much about what people thought of them or the apparent 'threat' from the cops.

They had the numbers and the resources to put a stop to anybody who tried to speak out against what they were doing and the way they made their money. No one dared to lift a finger; everyone just left them to get on with things, even if the guilt still stirred in their stomachs.

That night, I was the one locking up for the night and double checked that every window and every door was securely locked. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried to push my encounter with Aaru to the back of my mind, he managed to find a way out through to my actions. Because there was no doubt that the reason I was spending so long on checking the security was because there was a part of me that was panicking in case he decided to pay me another visit.

Thankfully - and somewhat surprisingly - no one had asked me about what had happened since I'd emerged from the bathroom. Even when Claude came over for rehearsals - because I presumed that Ben had told her that I'd had a bloody nose and had been acting a little hysterical - hadn't asked me anything about it. And while that was how I wanted it, I couldn't help thinking that people were treading on eggshells around me.

As I double checked the final window, I heard Merritt let out a bellowing laugh from upstairs in the bar. All of the horsemen were up there, even Ben which made for a change. I made my way up to stairs, my legs tiredly moving and I was already counting the minutes before I could get into my bed.

But no, I couldn't get into my bed. It would have to be a bed. Atlas' bed. The bed that Atlas happened to be sleeping in that was technically my bed.

I raised an eyebrow at Ben who was behind the bar, mentally counting the number of beer bottles and empty glasses that were scattered on the top.

Holy shit. 

'How much have you drunk?' I half-gasped, watching as Ben rolled his eyes in my direction. ' I do not want to be cleaning up sick later when one of you is nursing your hangover.'

'It's all Merritt's fault - ' Jack said, his arms madly waving around and I grimaced slightly. It seemed as though they were already well past the post of being tipsy.

'Hey, I'm the one paying - ' Merritt, to his credit, sounded remarkably sober but maybe that was just because he was good at hiding his drunken state. He seemed like the kind of person who'd had a lot of practice at pretending to be sober when he really, really wasn't.

'Why don't you come and have a drink?' Ben said with a smile, gesturing to the empty bar stool that was at the end of the bar. 'You need to lighten up a bit, Marge.'

'Marge?' Atlas asked as I rolled my eyes and reluctantly climbed onto the stool.

'It's what he calls me.' I explained exasperatedly, gesturing to Ben who was reaching for a glass for me. 'When he's behaving like an ass.'

'Hey!'

'And no - ' I said firmly, pointing a finger at him as he reached for a bottle of beer which I guessed was supposed to be mine. 'Someone needs to be a responsible adult around here because you look like you've had a couple of drinks already.' Ben didn't speak, just raised his eyebrow at held the bottle out to me.

Honestly...

'It might help solve some of your problems.' Jack said with a grin.

'I don't think so.'

'Please Marge - ' Ben begged, ' I feel like I haven't seen you properly for ages. You're always up on that hoop.' That was a complete lie but I couldn't ignore the pleading smile that Ben had on his face. I could never say no to Ben and I hated that he knew it.

'Fine.' I gave in with a sigh. 'But I'm only having 1 - '

'That's how it starts.' Dylan said with a chuckle and I rolled my eyes as Ben poured the beer into a glass for me.

'I expected a better example from you - ' I teased and Dylan shrugged.

'I'm allowed to let my hair down once in a while.' I took a long gulp of beer and gazed over the horsemen, my eyes locking onto the red velvet knee-high boots that Lula was wearing as she dangled her long legs across two chairs. They looked annoyingly familiar...

'Are those from - '

'The shop across the street.' Lula nodded and flexed her feet. I was infinitely jealous of them, and her, because they managed to make her legs look about 6 feet long and she could clearly walk in the 9 inch heel without risking a broken neck. 'I bought them this morning, they're so cool - '

'I get practically all my clothes from there.' That was another bonus point about living where I did - there were dozens of independent shops and second-hand stores that sold every little thing that you could ever ask for.

'How's the nose?' Atlas asked suddenly, his posture and tone nonchalant. I felt my eyes grow wide and the air felt like it had been sucked from my lungs.

Fuck. I'd spent the entire day praying that everyone would just forget it and it was clear that while they'd pretended to, there were a lot of unanswered questions floating around. I'd just hoped that it wouldn't come to this.

'You should all know seeing that Ben sent Dylan to spy on me.' I said lowly, watching the beer swill around in my glass.

'I wasn't spying!' Dylan defended. 'And Ben didn't send me, I needed to pee!'

'Yes he did.' I shot back. 'You're using that as an excuse - ' Ben didn't meet my gaze, his hands busy shoveling ice cubes into Lula's next drink. That told me everything - he had sent Dylan to check up on me, to see how I was.

Everyone in the room knew that something was up; they all knew that something had happened whilst I'd been out and I'd be surprised if Ben hadn't started to fill in some of the blanks for them. But that didn't mean I felt ready to divulge everything.

'We want to help around here, Margot.' Dylan said slowly, his voice gentle. 'We want to do anything that we can to help you guys because we have to thank you for giving us all this. And if there's someone going round punching people in the face then - '

'He does a lot more than just that.' I said stiffly, watching Ben suddenly freeze and meet my gaze. He'd noticed the change in my tone; I was going to talk about it, just a little bit. Because everything, no matter what it was, always seemed to come back to this. And I was sick of it. I was also sick of myself.

'His name's Aaru Landau.' I said finally, tripping over the words because I couldn't get them out fast enough. 'He's in one of the gangs who operates in the area. And he's my ex-boyfriend.' Just staying the words made me feel sick in my mouth and made my head start to hurt. I needed to keep track on what I was saying and what I was thinking because the two things were very different.

'And he goes around punching people in the nose regularly?' Merritt asked, his tone almost jovial but his expression grave.

'Not just the nose...' Ben said seriously and I wanted to roll my eyes. I was trying to brush the whole thing off as meaning nothing while Ben was acting as though it had been a life and death situation - which it had, several times. But I didn't want anybody to know that.

'He used to throw me around a bit.' I said flippantly, my eyes fixed on the glass in my hand. I couldn't bear to look at any of them - I didn't want to see the sympathy or the worry because I'd seen it all before countless times and people's sympathy hadn't done me any good when he'd cracked 4 of my ribs. 'I ended up in A & E a few times.'

'God Margot - ' I heard Lula sigh. 'You never said that.'

'I'm fine. I got out.' I didn't want anymore of their pity. Then I definitely wouldn't be able to face them. 'But he's still not over it. He still thinks he owns me.' I gulped down some beer as I let my words sink in. My voice was so close to quivering that I didn't know for how much longer I'd be able to continue.

'He's an asshole. Majorly.' Ben clarified and I looked up to see him looking at me, a gentle smile on his face despite the anger in his voice and I nodded.

'Yeah. He's an asshole.' I downed the rest of my beer in a gulp, having not even realized my glass was nearly empty. I was letting my emotions rule my head.

'How about we lighten the mood a little?' Merritt asked after a moment and I stared at him. 'Fuck, Marry, Kill?'

'That's a kids game.' Atlas moaned and I smirked slightly. He was exactly the time of person I knew would be against games like this. I, on the other hand, kind of loved them.

'It's a kids game because it's such a classic - ' He protested as Jack and Lula started chanting that Atlas was a spoilsport. Merritt grinned and turned to face me.

'You're first - '

'Why?'

'Because you're being grumpy.' I opened my mouth to protest but Ben started chuckling under his breath so I shot him a glare. 'I want you to do it with us - '

'Oh come on - ' I groaned as Ben started heaving with laughter and I wanted to crawl up into a ball and sleep. This was not the road I particularly wanted to go down. 'I'm not doing - '

'Yes, you are.' Merritt cut me off with a grin. 'Come on, in an ideal world.'

'In an ideal world, I'm married to Ryan Gosling. Or Jesse Eisenberg. Or Lin-Manuel Miranda.'

'Ouch.' Jack murmured with a grin and I noticed that Atlas had straightened up a bit. What the hell did that mean? 'That's harsh.'

'Fine! I can't believe I'm even considering this.' I said turning to face them while kicking my feet up onto the bar, sipping the bottle that Ben had pushed in my direction. No one even reminded me of the fact that I'd promised myself 1 bottle and no more.

'You're straight?' Jack asked and I nodded.

'Yeah, but at the minute Lula's looking like the best option.'

'You're breaking all our hearts here, Margot.' Dylan said kindly and I rolled my eyes. Imagining myself sleeping with any of them made me want to physically cringe but if we were basing this entire thing off appearances alone, I knew who'd I'd pick in a heartbeat.

'I'd kiss Lula - '

'Yaaaas!' Lula drawled with a wink in my direction.

'And I can't fuck Dylan because he's practically my brother. I also don't want to be a home wrecker, so that puts Jack out of the equation. I guess it's Danny then - ' I froze as I realized that, for the first time, I'd called him Danny rather than Atlas. I knew that he'd realized it too from the way his eyes kept flicking between me and the drink in front of him.

Oh God. I could feel myself getting warmer.

'You're blushing - ' Ben teased, poking me in the shoulder and I smacked his hand away. I was not blushing; I wasn't a teenager.

'And I'd kill Dylan.'

'What?' He shouted in outrage and I smirked. 'Why not Merritt?'

'He hypnotizes people which is an ability that could come in very handy around here. And, he's making me a fortune by drinking all of the beer.'

Merritt and Dylan instantly started arguing over the validity of my choice while I gulped down my beer, my face still burning. Why the hell had I said I'd fuck Atlas? I'd said that and we were sharing a bed so tonight was going to be the most awkward encounter I'd ever had.

But we'd already had some pretty awkward encounters. Things couldn't possibly get any worse, could they?

Then why did I feel like he was staring at me? Because I was paranoid as fuck and needed to calm the hell down? Or because he really was?


	14. 13

The next day was a solid, non-stop practice day. I managed to ignore the awkwardness that I'd created between myself and Atlas and get a decent night of sleep before myself and Ben rose at the crack of dawn the next day. Before the cast of Heights arrived, we ran through the songs we were thinking of performing tomorrow as well as my hoop routines, and my baton routines when Claude arrived.

I'd barely given the horsemen any thought - I hadn't had time to - since this morning while I'd been making breakfast and a large package had been delivered for them. They'd all turned suddenly silent and Merritt had gone to wake Dylan but I'd been fixated on the package that Atlas was carrying in - a standard, non-descript cardboard box.

Since then, they'd locked themselves in Jack and Lula's room and I hadn't seen them since. The curiousity was killing me but I knew whatever it was - and whatever had been in the box - was something to do with The Eye, the mysterious organization they all worked for. It had to be.

And while it was taking every fiber of my being not to storm upstairs and ask them what was in the box, I knew that the longer they kept themselves in the room then the longer they were out of my hair.

We'd run the first half of Heights and were taking a short break. I was still trying to shake off the slight alcohol-induced haze that I had clouding my mind that was a result of last night and another reminder why I knew I shouldn't drink very much in one go - while I pretended that I was, I wasn't actually that good at holding my alcohol.

I made my way over to the side of the stage where I kept my bag and started chugging down the water from bottle. It was insane how thirsty I could get from just 45 minutes of performing.

'Do you want some of my protein bar?' I shook my head as Claude approached me, her 2 litre water bottle in one hand and a protein bar in the other. It was unfair how polished she still look - she was just one of those people who never seemed to get affected by anything, whether that was exhaustion, tiredness or the bad weather.

Or rather, I just happened to have a literal mane of think, unruly hair that got tangled and drenched in sweat within 2 seconds flat. Claude's hair didn't do that - it stayed sleek and pin-straight no matter what you did to it. She frequently tried to argue that this was a bad thing; she'd yet to win that argument.

It was a long running joke between the pair of us that if we ever had to 'pick a chick' so to speak, our 'chicks' would be each other. She was my only long-standing female friend who was still around, who hadn't been driven away by my attitude and my anger problems and my problematic relationships. Or rather Aaru, because he was the epitome of problematic relationships.

'I haven't seen the horsemen around yet, have they gone?'

'No. They've shut themselves upstairs with a mysterious box that was delivered this morning.' I said flatly, watching as Ben somewhat precariously started moving three massive boxes of props from one side of the stage to the other.

'But they'll have to come out eventually, right?' While the novelty of having 5 people who were somewhat considered celebrities, or criminals depending on who you asked, staying with me had very quickly worn off, it was clear that it had not in Claude's mind. I smirked.

'Right. Or I'll just have to go up there and offer them some food.'

'I still need to ask for their autographs,' Claude sighed, folding her arms and looking pensively off into the distance as though looking out into the rows of chairs could give her the answer. 'I'd get a load of Ebay for them, right? If I did them all as a job lot?'

'I'm sure that someone would be crazy enough to want their autographs.' I confirmed with a roll of my eyes. 'And they'll love you asking them for them. It will definitely make them less arrogant than they already are - ' Claude looked at me, her eyebrow raised and her mouth curving into a smirk. I rolled my eyes.

'Fine. Atlas is arrogant - '

'He's cute, though.' Claude said with a smile.

'No, he's a dick - '

'But cute.'

'He's sort of cute.' I murmured shyly as Claude beamed in triumph.

'Like a little bunny rabbit - '

'Okay! Okay, that's a bit far, I think you need to calm down.' Claude started giggling as I tried to grab her to stop from her speaking and ended up snorting with laughter as I slapped myself in the face by mistake.

'I still can't believe they're actually here.' Claude said, her breathing labored as she tried to stop herself from giggling.

'It's a favor to Dylan.' I said with a shrug. 'We owe him. And I'm kind of hoping that they're going to do some shows and get the tourists in.'

'You are giving them a place to stay for free. At the very least they can do a bit of a magic.' Claude said, unwrapping her protein bar.

'They did a couple of tricks the other day, when I was trying to keep an entire yoga class from freaking out while there was a fight going on.'

'Bet that was fun - '

'Yeah.' I sighed, rubbing my eyes as I thought back to that long and restless night and the panic that had rose up inside of me every time I'd heard the creak of a floorboard or the murmur of a voice. Because even though I was used to the fighting by now, and knew exactly how to deal with them, the feeling of panic never seemed to go away.

'There's been more fights happening over the last year or so.' Claude said thoughtfully after a moment and I let her words begin to sink into my brain. This was true. But why? 'I don't know where they're getting more money and more guns from - '

'I don't really want to know.' I said with a rueful smile, already beginning to count off on my fingers the number of ways that they could have come into that money - their crimes didn't limit to just producing and exchanging drugs. There was no crime that were afraid to touch. 'As long as the fighting doesn't disrupt the carnival then I don't really care right now.'

This sounded harsh but fighting was so common around here that I couldn't afford to drop everything and start crying in a corner whenever guns started shooting. As long as the carnival went ahead, I'd be happy. Tourists sometimes flocked in their thousands and it was one of the most profitable ways that we could make money.

'I guess we should get back to practicing.' I said, taking a final gulp of water and Claude chomped down the rest of her protein bar. The show must go on, whatever was happening. It had to. Or we'd all fall apart.

***  
We did another full run through of Heights after picking apart a couple of the scenes and by the time most of the cast had left, I was getting hungry - clearly the bagel I'd had for lunch hadn't been enough.

Claude was still around, though, and she was helping to Ben to repair some of the scenery that, after countless uses, was beginning to look a bit tired. I was repairing some of the props and costumes that were close to tearing at the seams and was glad, for the hundredth time, that Mom had taught me to sew because otherwise I'd had to pay someone else to do it.

I looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps and voices, fully expecting to see Ben and Claude so it took me a moment to take in the horsemen, each one with a duffel bag slung over their shoulder.

They hadn't left Jack and Lula's room all day, not even for lunch, and I had been getting a little paranoid about them. It was definitely the longest I'd known Merritt to go without alcohol - unless he had a secret stash that I didn't know about - and now I was wondering what had been strong enough to drag them out.

'Everything okay?' I asked slightly tentatively, trying to read each of their expressions. They were all looking strangely determined about something and I could feel that my curiousity was going to get that better of me.

'Yeah, we're going on a bit of a road trip - ' Before Jack could continue or I could answer, Ben and Claude emerged from the back room half-covered in streaks of white paint.

'Road trip?' Ben repeated, shooting me a look which I could only respond with a blank face. I had no idea what they were talking about. Were they leaving? Was this it?

'Yeah, we need to go somewhere.' Atlas continued. 'We probably won't be back until tomorrow night.' So that was what the bags were for. But where were they going? And what did it have to do with the box that had been delivered this morning?

'Oh okay.' I could detect the surprise in my own voice and tried to push it down. Was that all the information we got? I knew that I wasn't particularly close with them but we were letting them stay with us, which had to have a certain amount of trust. They weren't going to tell us anything about where they were going? 'Do we get to know anything?'

'Where are you going, exactly?' Ben asked, his thoughts clearly on the same wavelength as my own.

'Are you going to need some dinner? Is there a chance you're going to be killed because judging from the looks on your faces that's exactly what's happening.' Dylan sighed and took a step towards me.

'It's for the Eye.' He said slowly and I wanted to throw my hands up in his face because did he honestly not think I'd got that bit? I knew they were off on some mission for the weird cult that they worked for - I wanted to know why and whether they'd be safe.

'I got that bit.'

'And we'll all be fine.' He said firmly, meeting my gaze for a moment before looking down at his watch - the universal signal that they needed to leave. They all shot me a smile as the walked past, even Atlas, but I couldn't focus on that; I was more focused on the fact that anxiety was bubbling up in my stomach and Dylan's words hadn't done a thing to calm me down. I was worried for them. And I barely knew them.

'Well, that was...morbid.' Ben said slowly, as I watched the door swing shut behind them. 'Why did they join the Eye if it makes them look so bloody miserable?'

'It's probably nerves.' Claude said, sounding as chipper and cheerful as ever.

I thought I'd be glad to see them leave but now, all I could focus on was the panic and worry that was building up inside me.

\- Thank you for reading! Any thoughts?


	15. 14

Luckily, the next day, I didn't have much time to sit down and think about how much I was panicking because I was swept off my feet until dinner time. It was the day of the carnival so I was performing all day and when I wasn't performing, I was getting ready to perform or was out in the streets selling tickets for performances. I hadn't had so much as a spare second to worry about the horsemen and maybe that was a good thing.

Because I knew that if I had, I wouldn't have been able to push those thoughts away. My unconscious brain seemed to care a lot more about them than my conscious brain had realized. Sleeping alone in bed, without Atlas' quietly snoring figure next to me, had been strange.

God, Dylan better have not been lying to me about what they were doing. If any of them came back hurt then I was going to have a fit.

Around 4pm, while Claude and Ben were still out selling tickets, I made myself a burger and some fries. This bit was the calm before the storm - the silence before the slot of evening performances started which meant I'd be up until midnight and wouldn't have a chance to a eat a thing.

The evening performances were always the busiest and was the time were things usually got a little crazy, compared to the relative calm of the matinee performances; basically, most of the spectators rolled in drunk. But I'd seen everything now so nothing could surprise me - it wouldn't be the first time someone was sick on the stage, if that ended up happening. Nor would it be the first time objects were thrown onto the stage.

Last year, I'd been pommeled with oranges. Or rather, one man in particular had decided to start throwing oranges. That had been interesting.

The theatre was silent, the only sound being the faint murmur of voices and footsteps that I could hear through the windows. This was the first time I'd been alone in days, the first time I hadn't been surrounded by the horsemen's constant stream of noise that they seemed to carry around with them.

I'd been too busy to think about it before but now, as I slowly ate my fries and looked out into the rows and rows and seats that were set up, I missed them. I was kind of sad that they weren't around. The place seemed too quiet without them now, despite having spent years before they turned up sat in a silent theatre.

The worry began to ripple through my body again and I pushed it down by quickly eating the rest of my fries, the salt coating my fingers. The horsemen knew what they were doing - I knew that. I'd seen the 2 massive stunts that they'd pulled live on TV and they certainly weren't amateurs. They were going to be fine. They were fine.

I just wished I knew what they were doing and were they were. That way I'd know where to go if I had to go and help them...

I could feel the ghost of Claude smirking down on me and even though I was completely alone, I rolled my eyes. I knew exactly what she'd be saying to me if she could hear my thoughts right now.

Fine.

So I didn't hate them as much as I had first thought I did, or as I still pretend to. They might not be as annoying as I made them out to be but Atlas still needed to be taken down a peg, even if he did look awfully cute in the morning and had an impeccable taste in clothes...

I needed to stop. I should be stronger than this. It should take more than one man in a shirt-and-sweater-combo to get me feeling a bit weak at the knees.

I sighed, leaning back in my chair and let my head dangle off the bag. I needed to get out more. I needed to push Atlas out of my head and focus on...well...everything else that was going on that wasn't him. He probably had someone back home that he was interested in. Or he might be gay because it was surprising how many times I formed a crush on guys who weren't even on my end of the spectrum.

I checked the time on my watch and mentally groaned, pushing myself up from my chair and taking my plate through to the kitchen. I didn't have time to fantasize about Atlas; I had a show to do.

***  
I stood in the wings, shaking out my hands and beginning to run through my pre-show stretches. I hated staying in my dressing room because it made me feel detached from the audience but standing in the wings did nothing to calm my nerves. Adrenaline was shooting through my body and my breathing was beginning to get slightly erratic.

I was always this way before a performance, before I kicked myself into gear and stopped freaking out. It was the nervous energy that made me get on stage. But it still made me want to be sick and I didn't think that feeling would ever go away, no matter how many shows I did.

The performance wasn't due to start for another 15 minutes but I could already hear people talking and pushing their way through to their seats. I hadn't heard anyone falling over yet so hopefully, everyone in this audience would be sober or at least partly so.

I had my other two costumes hung up on a rail, as well as a mirror that was leaning up against the wall, my make up bag and a box of hair clips in case I needed to sort my hair out quickly between performances. Ben was basically banned from this side of the stage while I was performing - not that he needed much encouragement to stay away - in the event of a quick change and I flashed him with something that he really didn't want to see.

So far, my costume was holding up and while it was old and beginning to stretch a little out of shape, I thought it looked pretty good considering everything.

The door to the wings opened and Ben stepped out, a smirk on his face which immediately made me curious. He was holding something behind his back and his smile got wider the closer he got to me.

'It looks like someone has a secret admirer.' He explained, almost gleefully. 'I want to find whatever poor man is so obsessed with you and tell him to cut his losses early - ' 

'Hey, not fair - ' I said firmly, trying to make out what Ben was holding behind his back that was making him so excited. And what did he mean about a secret admirer? 'What's going on?'

'Someone left a present for you behind the desk.'

'A present?' I never usually got presents from audience members - the occasional card, yes, but the only people who tended to get me presents were Ben and Claude.

'Yep.' My eyes scanned over the object that Ben was holding in his hands as he brought it out from behind his back. I didn't react for a moment. He couldn't be serious. He really could not be serious.

Bile began to rise up in my throat as the door was pushed open again and Claude stepped out, grinning. She obviously new about my present - a bouquet of black dahlias. But I couldn't speak; I couldn't think of anything witty or clever to say to remove the grin from her face.

This really wasn't over, was it? It was never going to be over. My hands were shaking and it wasn't just performance nerves anymore; he'd been here. Whether it was him or one of his men, it didn't matter. Aaru had been here - in the one place that I thought I'd been safe.

'What is it? What's wrong?' Claude asked suddenly, realizing the panicked expression I was wearing as her eyes flickered between the bouquet in Ben's hands and my face. 

'It was an inside joke between us...' I breathed, a look of understanding crossing Ben's face. 'He said that I was morbidly beautiful. Like the black dahlia.' He hadn't been comparing me to the flower, either; he'd always had a sick fascination with famous murder cases, probably because he wanted to be that skilled at killing people but I never asked, and had always said I had the same morbid beauty of that of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia. 

It wasn't something I'd ever thought much about. But, apparently, he had.

'Aaru's out there.' Ben said, his voice vicious, as he stared at the curtain that led out onto the ballroom floor, as though the very force of his gaze alone could melt the velvet.

'He might have left by now - ' Claude started but I shook my head. There was no way he'd leave after a stunt like this. He'd want to see my reaction with his own eyes.

'No. He's out there somewhere.' 

'I'm going to go and check the perimeter, check he doesn't have any of his men on alert. Claude can check the bar - ' Ben said and Claude nodded. The sick feeling in my throat wasn't going anywhere.

'What about - ' 

'And I think you should go back to your dressing room.' Ben said and my brows furrowed. What? 'Just so we can make sure you're not in any immediate danger. Please, Margot - ' 

'Fine.' I said with a sigh, brushing past him and making my way back up the stairs, my legs almost trembling. Sending the flowers had been a bold but clever move - no one else would understand the significance of them aside from me. 

As I made my way into my dressing room, almost walking straight into the rail of Heights costumes, it was clear that I needed to take a minute. I slumped down onto a chair, my hands clutching my knees, as I tried to control my breathing. There was a glass of water on the table from earlier but I didn't think I could stomach anything at the moment.

I couldn't let him ruin my performances. Then I'd hate myself even more for letting him get to me. That was what he wanted - the satisfaction of knowing that he had an affect on me, still, after all this time. And of course he did, because I was still wholly terrified of him.

I forced myself to close my eyes, taking heavy, deep breaths tp try and calm my labored breathing. I was going to be fine. I was going to smash it. I heard the door open but still didn't open my eyes - I didn't want to be faced with looking into the worried faces of Claude or Ben just yet.

I was going to be okay. I was fine. I couldn't let him get to me - that would mean he had already won.

I slowly opened my eyes, ignoring the irregular thudding of my heart. I was fine. I was fine. There was a figure leaning against the door. 

Fuck. 

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He was here. He was in the room. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see or hear or take in anything else that wasn't his casual figure against the door, the glint in his eyes, the smirk on his face. 

'What the fuck are you doing?' I was almost impressed at how bold I sounded. Inside, I was shaking like a leaf. I reached my phone before realizing that I'd left it downstairs in the wings. Ben was outside searching the perimeter; Claude was on the other side of the theatre searching the bar.

I was fine. I was fine.

'You obviously didn't appreciate my gift - ' 

'You need to leave.' I spat through gritted teeth. 'You're not allowed to be near me.' 

'You don't tell me what to do.' He pushed off the door, the muscles in his arms taut as he slowly walked towards me, like some kind of predator stalking his prey, but doing it sadistically because it enjoys scaring the shit out of his food. 

All I had to do was wait a couple more minutes before Claude was done checking the bar and then I could start screaming. She'd come running - I knew that she was a fast runner - and then this whole thing would be over with. I wouldn't have to look into his eyes anymore, smell his breath on my face as he moved towards me, try and control my breathing which I knew was a pointless task but one I attempted anyway.

'You're not allowed to be here - ' I repeated, reclining in my chair in an attempt to stay away from him. But he didn't like being told what to do; I'd just provoked the bear. And now he was baring his teeth at me.

The punch came before I could even react, the blow stinging my cheek as I brought my hands up to try and protect myself. But he was faster than me and he knew; he grabbed hold of my ponytail and grabbed, pain shooting through my scalp and my neck as he pulled my head backwards and practically lifted me from the floor as he dragged me from my chair and pushed me to the wall. 

I couldn't breathe. Panic was beginning to win over. My face was stinging and the pain in my scalp was almost unbearable but what hurt the most was the tightness in my chest; I'd forgotten how to breathe as my brain tried to comprehend what was happening as he free hand clamped itself around my throat and pushed me harder against the wall.

'You might think that you managed to get away from me, but you can never really leave, Margot.' He was clasping my throat just tight enough that it hurt to breathe and I was panting so fiercely that my lungs were beginning to burn. My head was throbbing, both with pain and lack of oxygen. 

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't scream for Claude with his hand around my throat. And it didn't seem like he was open to compromising right now.

'You belong to me, you got that, honey?' I couldn't nod because his hand still gripped my hair and I couldn't speak because his other hand was restricting my vocal chords. I could smell his breath on my face and it made me want to be sick. I felt like I was drowning - my vision was going hazy, my head was throbbing and I could barely breathe. 

Aaru grinned, his obnoxious gold tooth glinting slightly in the light, before he struck me again, this time in the other side of my face. My vision went black as all of a sudden I heard the raising of voices. He let go of my throat and I slid to the fall, coughing and heaving as my body tried to take in air. 

Everything around me was happening too fast - the room was spinning, my heart was pounding and the voices seemed to be screaming down my ears they were so loud. My mind began to switch off; my vision turned blank and the pain overwhelmed me.

I felt a light pressure on my head that sent shockwaves of pain shooting through me.


	16. 15

The first thing I recognized was the couch I was lying on - it was the couch/pull-out bed that was kept in the smallest dressing room. The green material scratched gently at my skin, three pillows cushioning my head and a blanket draped over me.

I could feel the pulsing of my heart reverberating through my body as I tried to move into a different position, the cramp in my arms stinging. I was cold, despite the blanket, my almost-bare legs shaking, though I didn't think that was just because of the cold. They were aching too, my legs, as well as the rest of my body - a deep, dull ache that went right down into my bones. I didn't remember taking part in any marathons lately.

Had I been asleep? I couldn't remember. I pried my eyes open, the motion sending pain shooting through my head. The room was dark thankfully because I doubted I would have responded very well to bright light. The room was empty too, the thundering of my heart amplifying in the silent room.

There was a clock on the wall behind me, at least I thought there was if I could remember correctly, but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to twist that far without an immense amount of pain. I tried to think, racking my brains for what had been happening in the moments before I'd drifted off but my mind was black, almost as black as the sky through the window.

Sky. Window. It was night. It had been light outside when I'd been awake, at least I thought it had been.

I scanned the rest of the room, trying to make out the outlines of objects in the darkness. There was a table in front of me, a duffle bag next to it, and a bouquet of flowers on the table.

Bouquet. Flowers. Ben would never buy black dahlias, he wasn't the flower type, and I'd never buy them because...

Something clicked, hard, in my head. Something pushed me out of the naïve, ignorant bliss that I was in.

Shit.

My fists tightened around the blanket that was bunched around me. I wanted to grab onto the bouquet and throw it out the window. But I couldn't reach. They were staring me in the face, mocking me, taunting me.

Ben had left the flowers downstairs and they were now up here. He'd wanted me to see them when I woke up. 

Aaru had gone back downstairs after knocking me out, retrieved the flowers, and somehow managed to get back upstairs to put them on the table and then left. I remembered someone touching me while I'd been partly unconscious; I'd thought it to be Ben or Claude but what if it had really been Aaru, returning with the flowers?

I immediately wanted to jump in the shower and scrub at my skin until it was red raw. He'd touched me, had his hands on me. He could have done anything to me - anything and I wouldn't have even realized because I was unconscious. 

He'd done all of this to prove a point. That he was capable of getting to me and he'd done and he'd do it again. His words were ringing in my ears, the truth that I'd known but had tried to deny - once you were inside the gang, you could never truly leave.

The speaker that was on the opposite wall began to crackle with sound, the noise hurting my head slightly, as I tried to make out the specific sounds rather than just a wall of white noise. I could hear music, faint tinkling notes of a piano, a voice, male, familiar...

Fuck.

I pushed myself up from the sofa, immediately regretting it for the searing pain that shot through my head and blurred at my vision. I was missing the show. Ben was on stage right now and I was still dressed in my costume and yet to even step foot onto the stage.

I peeled the blanket off me, the bright satin of my costume glinting slightly in the low light of the moon. My muscles still felt heavy as I gently swung my legs off the couch but I had to move. It was the show. I couldn't miss it, I couldn't leave Ben and Claude.

The door leading to the roof was pushed open and I instantly stiffened, my heart beginning to race in panic. Had Aaru come back? He'd shown how he could do it once and he hadn't been afraid then -

'Hey, Marge - ' I took in the figure of Claude clutching a mug of something steaming in her hand, still dressed in her leotard. I let out a deep breath and forced a smile, watching as she came closer, flicked on the table lamp and placed the mug on the table. 'You need to lie down - '

'But I'm missing the show! I need to perform!' From the looks of it, I'd already missed our baton number but there was still time for me to perform my routines on the hoop and do a couple of songs before the show finished...

'You're not doing anything.' Claude said sternly, her voice steely cold. 'You don't have the strength to hold yourself up on that hoop.' 

'I'm fine - ' 

'You're shaking.' I hadn't realized it before, my mind already overcome with a billion different pieces of information about how bad a state my body was in but now that she said it, her hand gently warming my shoulder as she snuggled onto the couch with me, I realized she was right. 

I let Claude wrap her arms around me, breathing in her fruity perfume and the tang of hairspray and sweat. She was solid and I was wavering and quivering and about to break. Every ounce of my body felt vulnerable and tired. And that was wholly fixed around the bouquet of flowers that lay not a foot in front of me.

I wasn't going to let myself cry, though. I'd already passed out and that was enough drama for me for one day. 

He'd come back in here to move the flowers because he'd wanted me to see them. And it didn't matter that I knew Ben would have quickly took control of the situation and secured the perimeter. He had people everywhere, prepared to follow his every command and effortlessly blend in to their surroundings and slip among people.

'I should get rid of those.' Claude said after a moment, gesturing towards the flowers on the table. She and Ben weren't stupid - I knew that they'd have realized that Aaru had been back and moved them. Maybe the shock of his actions, of his brazenness, had only just sunk in.

'I want to throw them out the window.' I murmured and saw a flicker of a smile on Claude's face. 'When I have enough strength.' I wasn't sure if I would be able to pick the bouquet up at the minute, never mind throw it as satisfyingly as I wanted to, given how much my arms were shaking. 

'I'm so sorry.' I almost didn't hear Claude's words; they were barely more than a breath next to me. But I did and the sinking feeling began to rise up again in my stomach. This was exactly what I hadn't wanted - people feeling sorry for me, for my situation.

'It's nothing to do with you - ' I said, my voice sounding harsher than I'd intended it to.

'I can still feel sorry for my best friend.' Claude replied, ignoring the bitter tone of my voice. 'I can be sorry that that animal is able to have that kind of affect on you. I can be sorry that I had to find you passed out on the floor.' 

'I'm sorry for that, too. I didn't mean to freak you out.' Claude rolled her eyes - she looked like she was going to cry but was forcing herself to smile.

'I started screaming. Like, hysterically screaming. Ben thought I was being murdered.' 

'We're both so dramatic.' I murmured and Claude giggled, squeezing my shoulders slightly and pressing a kiss to my forehead. 

'You should have a sleep. And drink your tea - ' I pulled a face as Claude pushed the mug into my hands. I didn't know what was in it, put it looked strangely green and smelled like grass. 'It's my mom's special recipe.' She said indignantly.

'What about the show?'

'Me and Ben have got it handled.' Claude said firmly, staring me down with her hands on her hips. I glared back at her for a few moments but with the warmth of the mug seeping into my hands and through my body, I knew that there was no way I felt strong enough to even walk, never mind get up on a hoop.

'Promise?' I tried one last time, for the sake of it. 

'Promise.'  
***  
My eyes flickered open, a cool breeze kissing my face and a rumble of noise echoing in my ears from outside the window. The noise didn't hurt as much any more as it danced around in my head. That was good. That was progress.

I looked up a little, startling at the figure of Ben who was sat in front of me, half-perched on the coffee table. He smiled as I met his gaze but I knew it was strained. I could see the pain in his eyes.

'Hey sleeping beauty - ' 

'That's not funny.' I said firmly, feeling myself smile regardless. Ben shrugged.

'We need a little bit of humour in all this.' 

'I'm sorry...' 

'I won't have you feeling sorry for what that monster did - ' Ben shot back, his smile vanishing. We'd had this conversation a dozen times - how none of it was my fault and yet I still felt responsible for the pain that I was so visibly causing Ben and Claude. 'You've had some other visitors as well, by the way - ' My brows furrowed and I was confused for a minute, trying to read the slight smirk on his face.

'Oh fuck.' Ben burst out laughing and I rolled my eyes. Because that was just what I needed right now - after all this, to find out that the horsemen were back, knew everything that had happened and had seen me sleeping and probably drooling all over my face. 

Excellent.

'They were asking why you didn't perform. They actually sounded quite upset - ' 

'Great.' I sighed. 'Wait, they watched the show?' Ben nodded.

'Yeah, they all bought a ticket and everything.' I'm sure that tickets weren't the only thing that they'd bought.

'I can't believe they're actually back.' I mumbled, looking down at my hands. All the worry and panic that I'd thought yesterday came flooding back, but it had all been for nothing. They were fine, just as I had known they would be.

'You should have seen them, they were really concerned.' I could read the subtext within his words.

'I look really bad, don't I?' Ben smirked and rolled his eyes before nodding slowly. I didn't want to even go near a mirror, then.

'From the looks of it, he hit just where it's going to bruise the worse.' 

'That sounds like him.' Everything he did had a purpose, every move that he made was calculated, so why would coming after me be any different. Ben looked as though he was holding his breath. He said that the horsemen had been freaking out about me, I hated to think how he'd been reacting. 'I love you.'

Ben smiled, his body seeming to sag with tiredness as he leaned over towards me and kissed me gently on the side of my head. 'I love you too Marge.'

\- These have been an intense couple of chapters, what do you think is going to happen next?


	17. 16

By the next morning it was clear that I was feeling at least proportionately better because the first thing that hit me when I opened my eyes was how hungry I was. Light was streaming through the windows and, at some point during the night, someone had placed yet another blanket on top of me so I was now rolled up like a human burrito.

My hunger only grew as I rolled onto my side and tried to revive my tired muscles so that they'd be able to survive the long walk down to the kitchen so I could retrieve some food.

The room looked exactly as it had done last night, void from Claude and Ben's figures sat watching me which had both been quite creepy and strangely reassuring in knowing that I wasn't alone. My eyes locked onto the coffee table. It was empty.

The flowers were gone. Hopefully, that would mean I'd never have to look at them ever again or think of the joke that I'd shared with him but I knew this wouldn't be the case. He'd come back around eventually and, judging from how soon incidents with him seemed to be coming these days, I figured it wouldn't be very long. 

Having said that, I did feel slightly disappointed that I wouldn't have the chance to launch the bouquet out of the window. 

I pushed myself up from the couch and swung my legs out, pushing the hair from my face. I also really needed a shower and to brush my hair but that could wait. I hadn't eaten since lunch time yesterday, aside from Claude's Mom's suspiciously tasty and sleep-inducing tea and I needed to eat.

My legs weren't shaking anymore, which had to be a good sign, and I managed to cross the room and open the door without falling in a heap. Aside from the headache that was raging and the slight unsteadiness in my body - which could completely be down to the fact that I'd just woken up - I felt almost back to normal. The only thing that was different was the knowledge that Aaru seemed intent on getting to me anyway that he could.

As I slowly made my way down the corridor, not wanting to go too fast in case it was too much for my body never mind how hungry I was, I began to pick up voices coming from downstairs. 

Oh yes. The horsemen were back, weren't they? 

Great.

I was going to have to talk about what had happened. Ben and Claude's accounts weren't going to be good enough. I was going to set one foot in the room and be bombarded with how I was feeling and was I hungry which would only lead into me discussing every second of last night. 

I halted for a second at the end of the corridor, firstly so that I could try and figure out what conversation was going on downstairs but also so that I could give my body a minute to catch up with my mind and so that I could check my appearance in the mirror that always hung at the end of the corridor. I didn't know why we'd ever moved it. It was just always there.

Oh, shit. Ben really hadn't been kidding when he'd said that I looked bad last night, had he? Aaru did know how to pack a punch.

My entire face was basically mottled in black, purple and yellow bruises, particularly my right eye and the left side of my jaw. This, coupled with the tired bags under my eyes and the paleness of my skin made me look like some kind of severely unlucky anemic panda. 

I was going to have to do something about some of the bruises or I'd give everyone a heart attack as soon as I stepped out onto the floor. They'd think that the theatre was haunted and I was the ghost of some distressed soul who was eternally walking the halls trying to seek vengeance for my death.

Yeah, that sounded about right.  
***  
10 minutes later, after fumbling around in the bathroom, I was ready to eat Ben if it came down to it because I was feeling so hungry. I'd brushed my hair and my teeth, covered some of the worst bruises with makeup and thrown on a cardigan before making my way downstairs. I wasn't going to waste any time changing out of my costume; I'd lasted in it so far, I was sure I could survive another half hour.

The scene in front of me was what I'd expected - the horsemen were crowded around the dining table, along with Ben and Claude, with the almost intoxicating scent of toast and tea wafting towards me. I was going to devour that plate.

Atlas caught sight of me first, conversation abruptly stopping as I stepped out into the room, my arms wrapped around myself. Everyone's eyes were pinned on me and I could see what Ben had meant now - Dylan looked like he hadn't slept for a week and the bags under his eyes were almost darker than mine. I would have snapped back at them with something about if they took a picture it would last longer, but I didn't have the energy within me.

And besides, I didn't think that would be the best way to go right now.

Claude was smiling slightly in her way that always made me feel warm and comforted, the way that showed me she was proud and supportive and whenever I needed it would be ready to dish out hugs. Ben looked blank, his half-smile strained and the tiredness clear in his eyes. It was probably taking him a lot of effort not to go and track Aaru down right now and strangle him in his sleep.

'I don't look that bad do I - ' I joked with a small smile, but no one laughed. Even Merritt was awkwardly pushing his egg around on his plate, his jaw tense and eyes drawn towards the floor. No one knew what to say. 

I looked towards the kitchen, the door open, and saw the all too familiar pot on the stove that always signified someone had made porridge. There was nothing more that I wanted in the world right now than a bowl of porridge; I was going to drown it in honey.

'Have you made food?' I asked Ben, my address seeming to drag Ben out from his thoughts, whatever they'd been - probably how much he wanted to kill Aaru right now. And he wasn't the only person at the table.

'Yeah,' He murmured, rubbing a hand over his face. 'Yeah, sit - ' Claude dragged a chair over for me, placing it between herself and Ben as he padded off towards the kitchen. I'd killed all hopes of conversation when I'd walked in but the cold silence that was around the killing me.

'Hang on a minute, you made eggs?' I turned in my chair to face Ben, a smirk on my face; I knew that he had, seeing as Dylan and Merritt were currently eating a plate full of eggs and toast but it was rare for Ben to ever properly cook something.

He glared at me before rolling his eyes and I smirked. 'Yes, I can cook - ' He said crisply and I heard Claude chuckle. 

'Really? I forgot seeing as you never, ever seem to do it - ' 

'That's because you always hog the kitchen.' Ben passed me a bowl of porridge and I could have wept with happiness. I immediately reached for the bottle of honey and added a liberal amount before digging my spoon in. I could always count on a bowl of porridge to make me feel, at least a tiny bit, better. Even if that thing was Aaru.

'How much money did we make yesterday?' I asked, hoping to break the silence up even further. I was beginning to feel more like myself again now - all I needed was for everyone to stop looking at me as though I was a walking corpse. 'Has someone counted it yet?'

'Yeah, something over $900 - ' Ben started.

'$904.50.' Claude corrected with a grin and I nodded, a sense of relief flooding through me. We needed to grab every tourist that we could. And yet, some feeling was stirring slightly in my stomach. I'd been passed out on the couch when they'd made all that money.

'That's good.' 

'We paid too, by the way - ' Merritt muttered through a mouthful of food and I saw Atlas physically recoil, moving his chair an inch to the left. I giggled before I knew what was happening, the tiredness clearly having a deeper affect on my head than I realised, and Atlas shot me an almost surprised look - as though he was slightly surprised that I'd laughed at all.

Because while I was hard and tough for the most part, that didn't mean I never smiled. I just had to be around the right people.

But my laugh seemed to spark off the rest of the table and normal conversation resumed, not that I was really paying attention to much of it. I was much more concerned with the porridge that I was shoveling down my throat - although I was listening out for any mention of what the horsemen had been up to all of yesterday. 

It turned out that being in fear for your life made you build up quite an appetite and I'd finished my bowl within 5 minutes. I could have easily polished off another one but I didn't want to push my luck and completely overload my body. I didn't want to be throwing up all over the place - that would make me feel even worse.

I took my now empty bowl into the kitchen, leaving Jack and Dylan to argue about the outcome of some soccer game, and passed it to Ben who was there washing up along with Claude.

'You're looking better than you did last night.' Ben said gently and I rolled my eyes, turning to Claude who looked to be drinking a cup of her Mom's miracle tea.

'That's because I caked on a load of make up - ' Claude wrapped her free arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a hug, the muscles in my back complaining slightly but I ignored them.

'Oh.' I chuckled as Ben dried off his hands and walked past me into the ballroom, not before poking me gently on the nose. Honestly, he was so childish sometimes.

'How are you really feeling?' Claude asked cautiously after a moment and I swallowed the lump in my throat and shrugged. 

'Like shit. Terrified. Angry.' Claude put her mug of tea down on the counter top and hugged me properly and for some reason that made me want to start crying, really crying. Because while I'd plastered on make up and tied my hair up and started to thaw the coldness that had settled within me, there was only so much I could do right now to repair my fractured feelings.

That was what Aaru had wanted. He'd known this would take me by surprise, shake me up, knock me off guard and would take me more than a minute to right myself again.

But I knew that at least I didn't have to go through it all alone.


	18. 17

After breakfast, I took a long, leisurely shower and washed my hair twice and it wasn't just to relax my muscles - I felt as though I could still feel Aaru's breath kissing my face, his touch still rippling across my skin. Scrubbing at my body with soap and hot water made me feel better and even though it didn't completely wash away the feeling of him, it helped. I then changed into a fresh blue patterned dress, one of my favorite ones.

Baby steps. That was what I was going to have to take. Baby steps, and to not hate myself too harshly if I had to take a few steps backwards.

It was never that easy though.

Ben had planted himself in the theatre foyer, accompanied with snacks, to keep an eye on the door and to double check anyone who wanted to come in. I knew this was supposed to comfort me, the extra security was supposed to prove how safe I was, and while the sentiment did, I knew that, deep down, it didn't matter how much security we put in place - Aaru would find a way to get to me if he wanted to get to me.

To keep myself busy, and to stop myself from being so wrapped up inside my own thoughts, I started tidying up a bit; I made and re-made all the beds, tidied up my room and did a complete overhaul of the freezer. I learned that, as I'd been sleeping on Merritt's couch, he'd shared a bed with Atlas last night and the thought alone was enough to make me smile slightly - I'd no idea how either of them had managed to get any sleep considering how much they seemed to argue.

My next stop was the bar because I could only guess at how disorganized it must have got last night when Ben was concentrating on making sure everyone got the drink that they ordered and paid for it, rather than thinking about the number of glasses he had and whether every bottle was going back in the correct place.

I weaved my way through the rows of seats and up the stairs, taking a look towards the horsemen who were gathered on the stage, the dining table still in front of them and completely covered with sheets of paper and brown envelopes and maps and the kind of booklets that you'd pick up at a tourist information center.

So, wherever they'd gone on their road trip - wherever the Eye had sent them - it had either been unsuccessful or had left them with more questions than answers. I was heavily tempted to go back downstairs and stand in the wings and pretend to be sorting out props or something, just so I could eavesdrop, but I knew that if I did that then I'd never get anything done and the theatre would remain a beacon of disorganized chaos. 

There was also the chance that I'd start thinking about last night again and, so far, I'd done a pretty good job of avoiding that subject.

I got to work cleaning all the surfaces, wiping up any spillages, cleaning all the dirty glasses and putting them back in the right place and organizing all the bottles that we had, making note of any that were empty and we needed to buy again. Organizing and tidying always calmed me down because doing something with my hands and my mind didn't allow for any extra thoughts to invade my head; that meant, no thought of Aaru.

'Margot?' I looked up suddenly, having heard no sound of footsteps, to see Atlas stood in front of me, his hands in his pockets. 'Can we talk to you for a minute? Ben as well? '

'Yeah, sure - ' I stuttered, my mind blanking on how to form words as I instantly began questioning what they wanted to talk to me about.

'Great.' I got back to work taking a note of all the different types of beer that we'd run out of, aware that Atlas was still stood in front of me, his eyes slowly running over me. 'Oh...we meant...in the ballroom?'

'Oh.' I sighed, running a hand through my hair and casting a look up at him. He looked a little awkward yet impeccably put together, as per usual, and there was something about his beady blue eyes that made me pause. 'I'm busy but I'll be down in a minute.' 

'Great, thanks - ' He shuffled away, his hands still in his pockets, and I wasn't aware I'd even been staring at him until the logical side of my brain caught up with the crazy part of my brain to tell me that I'd been staring off into space. I really needed to snap out of it. 

I needed to remember that just because he wore nice clothes, he was still J. Daniel Atlas - a dick and pretty much the opposite of every guy I'd ever liked. 'Cute' was not something that Claude usually said about the men who had me interested.

I made my way down onto the ballroom floor, shouting for Ben as I did so. I hoped that whatever this was, whatever they wanted to speak to us, would be quick because I hadn't even started on the paperwork that I needed to do yet. I saw Ben coming out of the theatre foyer, followed by Claude, and quickly made my way towards them hoping they'd have some more answers.

'What do they want to talk to us about?' I asked, keeping pace with them as we walked towards where the horsemen were sat around the table. 

'I don't know, that's why we're just going to listen - ' 

'You really don't know?' I pressed; I wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing was just a way to get me in one place so I'd have to talk about last night. 'Really?'

'Yes. Really.' Ben said with a roll of his eyes. 'I am above ganging up on my sister with a group of magicians, you know.' 

'No you're not, you do it all the time - ' 

'What's this all about then?' Ben said with a smirking, turning away from me to face the horsemen. They were in the exact same positions that I'd left them in - Lula was still perched on the table with a lollypop in her hand, Dylan and Atlas standing and Jack and Merritt sat at opposite sides of the table - was that their attempt at becoming more productive? To stick Jack and Merritt at different ends?

Dylan looked up from whatever piece of paper he was staring at - the writing was too small for me to make out what was written on it - and looked around at the group, a sort of smirk playing on his lips. 'Who wants to do the explaining then?'  
***  
'So let me get this straight - you're on the trail of a thief...' Atlas opened his mouth to add some tiny detail that I'd missed, but I pushed on, 'who likes stealing paintings, replacing them with fakes, and selling the real ones on for hundreds of thousands of dollars. And you guys think that he's going to strike the Louvre next week because a new painting is being unveiled there.' I waited a moment for anyone to add something. Silence. 'So how the hell does that involve me?' 

My head was still spinning from the details of what they'd just told me and Claude and Ben's faces made it clear that I wasn't the only one. But what I was confused about was why they were telling us this - they'd had no problem being secretive before.

'We've been working on our plan for the last couple of days - ' Atlas said, 'and we've got a missing piece. We can't pull it off with just the 5 of us.' 

'So - Margot - ' Merritt continued, shooting Ben and Claude a look, ' would you like to help us?' 

'What the fuck - ' Claude gasped next to me and I smirked at her.

'That's not exactly what I was going to say but okay...' I didn't know what I was going to say. I was speechless. They...what? I looked over at Ben and Claude, shrugging at them, my mind still searching for the words. 

'Give us a minute.' Claude told them with a grin, grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards her while doing the same to Ben. 'So, that was mental - ' 

'It's crazy!' I whispered, seeing as how we were trying to have this whole conversation without them hearing us, 'I can't just go off to Paris with a group of magicians.' 

'Why not?' Claude asked and I looked at her incredulously.

'Because I need to help here!' Could she not see how crazy this whole idea was? 'I've got paperwork to do and I need to perform - ' 

'I think I can manage the paperwork.' Ben said quietly, speaking for the first time. He was actually agreeing with this?

'And we can always get someone from the chorus line to play Nina, just for a little while - ' Claude was beaming at me and even Ben was smirking a little. No. This...this was stupid.

'But...you can't be serious. I can't go - ' 

'Why not?' Claude shot back, her smile growing. I hated this. I couldn't go, I needed to be here. 'Loo, pros and cons. Pros - you get to go to Paris for free, because I presume they're paying - ' Claude gazed over her shoulder at them for a moment before turning back. 'You get to experience some amazing food. You can meet some cute guy who wears a beret - ' 

'I do love a beret.' I murmured and I saw Ben roll his eyes, his face lighting up as her watched our exchange.

'Exactly!' 

'But cons - ' 

'There are none!' I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. It wasn't that I didn't want to go - I mean, it was Paris - but the reality that this wouldn't just be a leisure trip was beginning to set in. 

'If I muck up, I could get everyone arrested in a foreign country or even killed.'

'They do this kind of thing all the time.' Claude insisted, her face turning more serious. 

'I don't! I'm an actress!' 

'And this is just another role.' Ben said firmly, stepping forward so he could squeeze my shoulder, in the comforting way that he always did. I didn't think I'd ever seen him so insistent about something. Even the horsemen seemed to be harboring some quiet determination for me to go with them and not just because they needed me for their mission.

It suddenly hit me. That was why they wanted me to go. They wanted to get me out of the way to get me away from Aaru because they were scared about what he'd do to me if he got his hands on me. That was why. 

I was going to call them out on it, claim that they didn't want me to help them, not really, they just wanted to take me away from here but something kept my mouth closed. Because it was true. Even I couldn't predict what Aaru's next move would be, not after the stunt he'd just pulled. 

And that made him dangerous. That put me in danger.

I sighed, shooting Claude a glance and saw that she was smiling triumphantly. I couldn't believe I was actually doing this. I was going to muck everything up so hard.

'Fine.' I said finally, almost through gritted teeth. 'I'm in.' 

\- Things are hotting up now!


	19. 18

I couldn't believe that I'd actually agreed to it. I'd actually said yes to going to Paris with them. Tomorrow I'd be leaving Washington Heights, leaving the country, for the first time in my entire life.

And that thought was terrifying.

I spent most of the afternoon packing and re-packing my bags, Claude giving me tips and not-so-helpful advice on what I should bring. I was trying to pack as little as possible so I'd have less to carry around and less to forget - not that this should have been difficult because I really didn't own that many clothes - but I found that I kept getting distracted. 

It was the first time I'd been back in my room for more than 5 seconds since the night I'd turned into a drowned rat. I was doing my best to ignore the smell and to breathe through my mouth instead of my nose but it wasn't easy. Ben, to his credit, looked to have done a good job at patching it up and drying it out as best he could but he said he was going to get a professional round tomorrow to check it out, using the money they'd earned last night.

I wouldn't be here for that. I wouldn't know what his verdict was because I was going with the horsemen to Paris to stop an art heist. Or something like that...

And I was going to get away from Aaru. Just knowing that by this time tomorrow he wouldn't be anywhere near me and he wouldn't be able to hurt me made me feel more relief than I'd ever openly admit. Because while I was able to cover it up most of the time with a hard stare and some swear words, he was the one person who terrified me.

And I hated myself for being so scared of him. I hated that I let him affect me in the way that I did. I hated that I was able to put our past relationship behind me and move the fuck on. It seemed almost impossible when every time I thought I was making progress, he'd pull another stunt and re-appear back into my life like a cannonball and break everything that I'd rebuilt apart.

Maybe this trip would be exactly the thing that I needed to help me forget about everything that had happened. It would give Aaru a little time to 'cool off' or whatever the hell he did when he wasn't terrorizing me and maybe this time he'd finally move on from pestering me every other day.

I'd been telling myself that that would happen for the last 18 months and maybe this would be the time that it would finally come true.

I looked up as the door opened to reveal Ben, the laptop that we both shared in one hand and the charger in the other. 'You can take it.' He said with a smile and a shrug and I instantly narrowed my eyes. No where in my packing itinerary had I stated that I was taking the laptop.

'No, I can't do that. That's not fair. What about you?'

'Yes, you can.' Ben said, sitting down on the floor next to me and placing the laptop on top of my suitcase. 'Because I'm going to FaceTime you every single day - ' 

'And what are you going to FaceTime me on, exactly?'

'I can borrow Claude's.' He replied with a grin, 'She already said that I could.' 

'You sure?' Ben just started at me, his own chipper expression causing me to smile a little and I sighed. 'Fine.' I carefully packed the laptop and charger into my suitcase, my smile growing larger after every second that passed. Ben's own happiness was infectious and I couldn't stop the smile on my face. For God's sake...

'This is exciting, isn't it?' Ben spluttered, sounding more like an excited child than a 29 year old adult. He wasn't even the one going away! 'I can't believe you're leaving us for weeks. We won't even be on the same continent - ' 

'You sound remarkably cheerful about that.' I deadpanned and Ben rolled his eyes, reaching forwards for my hand. 

'I'm excited for you.' 

'But what about you?'

'We'll be fine.' Ben promised but his words did nothing to calm the nerves that were squirming around inside of me. 

'I know. But that doesn't mean I can't worry about my little brother. Or my best friend. Or my home - ' Ben pulled a face as soon as I said this and I rolled my eyes.

'You're the younger sibling if you remember. I'm 2 minutes older than you.' 

'You don't act like it - ' I shot back, sticking my tongue out at him. 

'Because who pulled a hissy fit when she had to share a bed with somebody?' Ben insisted.

'That's different and you know it!' I wasn't letting this go but it seemed that Ben had had enough - the ultimate proof of who really was the younger sibling and who wasn't. 

I watched as Ben dug his hands into his pockets and brought out a packet of what looked like dollar bills, but clearly weren't, and a packet of coins. 'What're they?'

'I went down to the post office earlier and got you some euros.' He said, placing the 2 packets into my hands. The packets felt heavy, heavier than I'd expected. How much money was in them exactly? 'It was some of the money that we made yesterday - ' He added in before I could ask him. 

'Some of the money?' It felt like a lot more than just some of the money. Ben smiled and looked down at his feet. 

'Fine, half of the money we made yesterday.' 

'Half! I can't take that!' We needed that money for the roof and for food and for - 

'Yes, you can.' Ben said calmly. 'Because when you're on a different continent I won't be there to look out for you and you might need some help. Help that requires money.' 

I let his words sink in, the reality finally seeming to actually register inside of my brain. Ben wasn't going to be around. I was going to be away from him. For the first time in my entire life.

'I'm really going to miss you.' I murmured, swallowing the lump that was forming in my throat. This was really happening. I was really leaving him.  
***  
The rest of the day seemed to fly by in an instant and soon I was back to sharing the bed with Atlas while Merritt took the couch again. This was the last night I was going to be sleeping in my home, in my country, in my continent. Tomorrow I'd be in Paris.

'I promise that in Paris you'll get your own bed.' Atlas said, climbing in next to me and adjusting the covers.

'Good, I'm getting sick of your snoring.' I deadpanned, when in reality it didn't even bother me too much. 

'I don't snore!' He insisted and I smiled, rolling onto my back so my voice wasn't lost in the duvet that I had bundled up around me. At least when I had my own bed I wouldn't have to feel self-conscious about my pjs that consisted of old t-shirts and leggings. 'Thanks for helping us out, though.' 

'I'm being paid, that's why I'm doing it.' Atlas smirked and I saw him roll his eyes.

'Okay.' He didn't sound like he believed me but I didn't really care. 

'What if I mess up?' I murmured after a moment, turning my head so I could look at him properly. This was something that had been on my mind ever since I'd agreed to go. That fact that I had to expertise and still didn't even really know what I was doing.

'You won't mess up.' Atlas said confidently, turning his head to look at me. 'We've all got it handled. We just needed some eye candy to make it work - ' I rolled my eyes and turned away from him, ignoring the smirk on his face. I really wanted to hit him sometimes.

'Lula will be offended - ' 

'Merritt will be more offended - ' Atlas shot back and I chuckled, rolling back over to my side. After a night sleeping on a couch, it felt good to be back in a normal bed. Merritt must be having a shit time but he had chosen the sofa so I couldn't feel too sorry for him.

'Night.' 

'Yeah, night - ' 

This time tomorrow I'd be in Paris. I'd be falling asleep in a bed in Paris. I might be wearing a beret in Paris.

Oh God.

\- Margot is going continental! What do you think? Thanks for reading!


	20. 19

My alarm was set for 6:30 AM the next morning but just because it was set for that time didn't mean I had to get up exactly then; I was determined to spend every spare second that I could asleep in bed. It was the last time I was going to be able to do this for I didn't know how long so every second was going to count for me.

Of course, I was inevitably woken up by Atlas moving around the room, not so quietly, as he re-checked that he'd packed everything he'd brought with him. Obviously. Because everyone else simply had to be inconvenienced by his early morning whims. 

I groaned slightly, rubbing at my eyes and rolling onto my back. I was exceptionally grumpy first thing in the morning, especially when I had to get up earlier than I normally did.

I was trying to ignore the faint strips of sunlight that were shining through the blinds, urging me to get up. I didn't want to move; I remained half-stuck in the stupor of sleep, breathing in the smell that over the last few days I'd come to associate with Atlas: something minty and clean with something else that I couldn't put a name to. 

I rolled over again, clamping my eyes shut and attempting to snuggle back under the covers. It wasn't just that I wanted to stay in bed for a few more minutes because I was tired; I wanted to stay in bed because, that way, I wouldn't have to face what was happening today. I was feeling slightly sick at the prospect of what was to come and I didn't know whether that was down to nerves or excitement but it was making me want to go back to sleep.

I slowly opened my eyes, running a hand through my hair as my eyes scanned the room and landed on Atlas' figure.

So I wasn't only tired, grumpy and anxious, I was now being a creep because I was watching a guy get dressed. Way to go, Margot.

I really didn't know how he managed to look cute and nerdy and yet at the same time devastatingly handsome in a way that almost made me start breathing heavily. I couldn't explain it but there was something in the sculpted slope of his muscles and the freckles dotting his skin, just something that kept me interested.

I was probably still delirious with sleep. That's where all these thoughts were coming from.

He turned around when he'd stepped into his dark jeans, his hands deftly unbuttoning a crisp grey shirt. I might have been staring at his torso for a second or two before his eyes moved up and rested on me. 

Fuck. I glanced away quickly, but I knew that he'd seen me staring. I really should have just stayed asleep. 'Sorry.' I murmured, focusing sternly on the grey carpet that lay on the floor as I started running my hands through my hair in an attempt to sort out the knots; I really wasn't in the mood to spend half an hour brushing it.

The only thing with telling yourself that you weren't going to look - that you absolutely could not look - was that now, the only thing that I wanted to do was look. I felt like a child. A creepy child, but still. I mentally groaned at myself. I had this - whatever this was - bad. I needed to snap out of it. I was being really stupid.

Atlas was a jackass 60% of the time, I knew that. And he obviously didn't feel anything for me the way I felt something for him. He was famous and a celebrity and could get anyone that he wanted and he had if the celebrity columns were anything to believed. Not that I took their word as gospel because I knew that the media was hardly a reliable source and judging from how private a person Atlas was, he hadn't given half the interviews the columns claimed he had.

But still. He might not even like girls; he might not even be interested in a relationship at all. I needed to stop being so obsessed with his appearance and concentrating on every little thing about him because I had bigger things to deal with, much bigger things.

'Alright, I'm done.' He was dressed in his standard dark jeans, grey shirt and navy jumper combo and was turned away from me towards the mirrors, running his fingers through his rumpled hair in a way that almost had me hypnotized. Why was I so obsessed with his hands? I'd never had a thing for hands before.

I pulled my hair into a bun on the top of my head and reached for my phone, just as Atlas turned back around and headed for the door. 'We need to leave soon.' He said flatly, almost sternly, and before I could react he'd disappeared out the door. 

I threw my phone across the bed and held my face in my hands. Fantastic. Now I'd pushed him even further away because I'd subtly been checking him out while he was getting dressed. That had been a dick move. Now I was going to have to apologise at some point and I hated apologising to people because I was a stubborn pig sometimes and hated being wrong.

Outside, I suddenly heard a sharp banging followed by Atlas shouting that they 'needed to leave soon.' That was Merritt's door and I felt slightly sorry for him that Atlas was putting out his frustrations because of me out on Atlas. But then Atlas was a control freak most of the time anyway, so maybe it was nothing to do with me.

All I knew was that there was absolutely no way I was getting back to sleep anytime soon, not with my thoughts about Atlas swimming around my head as well as nerves now. We were due to leave in a couple of hours.

I was going to be stuck in a foreign country with a hot guy who thought I was nothing but a problematic creep. Fantastic.

***  
An hour and a half later and we were all ready to leave. I'd dosed myself up with porridge and coffee because I didn't know when I'd next have the opportunity to eat anything. I was seriously going to miss my porridge. Not that there was any reason I couldn't have it in Paris but it wouldn't be the same because I wouldn't be eating alongside Ben and Claude and I wouldn't have made it in Dad's special pot.

But now it was the bit that I'd been dreading even more than my porridge withdrawal. The goodbyes.

Everyone had gathered by the theatre doors, bags of belongings circling our feet that Dylan was slowly packing into the trunk of the cab that would take us to the airport.. I'd been pushing this part of the experience out of my mind and pretending that it wasn't even going to happen because, really, I didn't know how I was going to cope with it.

Ben was first. I hugged him quickly, drawing my arms away, but then he stepped towards me and forced me to hug him again. We were both good at masking our emotions through our words but our physical actions were something else.

'I'll face time you every night.' He murmured into my hair and I nodded, breathing in his scent and trying to remember every tiny detail about him. 

'On it.' 

'And stay safe. Hit any poxy French dudes who hit on you and - ' 

'I've got it.' I confirmed by pulling away from him and nodding, swallowing the lump in my throat. He squeezed me on the shoulder once - his way of showing affection to me ever since we'd been small - before drawing his hand away.

Now the hard bit. Claude looked like she was going to cry and I hadn't even touched her yet. I did not need her starting because I knew that there would be nothing holding me back.

'Bye - ' I said, forcing a smile onto my face and trying not to focus on the tears that were forming in her eyes.

'Bye.' I wasn't going to cry. I wasn't. Not with everyone watching me. I sucked in a breath and leaned it for a hug, relishing the feeling of Claude burrowing her face into my hair.

'I'm sorry.' She breathed, 'I've just never been away from you before.' 

'How do you think I feel?' I insisted with a laugh, 'I've never left the country aside from when I came into the country but that doesn't count because I'm an immigrant.' Claude giggled as I pulled away from her, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

'You'd better buy me a red beret.' She said seriously and I nodded, ignoring the heavy feeling that was building up in my throat.

'I will. I promise.' 

Dylan started to usher the horsemen into the cab. My time was running out. I didn't have anything else to say, though, because they both knew everything that I could ever tell them anyway.

I let Dylan place his hand on my shoulder and lead me out of the theatre. It still felt like a dream, as I climbed into the cab, like nothing was real and that this really wasn't happening. But it was. It really was.

As I settled into the far left seat, looking over the buildings that I'd seen every day of my life so far but wouldn't see again for weeks, the horsemen were already arguing about who got to sit next to whom and who was taking up too much space and who was digging their elbows into who. I didn't take much notice as the cab started to drive away.

I turned back to grab a quick glimpse of Claude and Ben both waving at me, Claude looking as though she was about to burst into tears. I didn't want to leave them, I really didn't. But, there was one huge positive about this trip that I just couldn't shake, no matter how hard I tried. I was going where Aaru couldn't hurt me anymore.

-What do you guys think is going to happen in Paris? And what about Danny and Margot?


	21. 20

It seemed to take hours to snake our way through the seemingly-endless queues of people, to pass through every checkpoint and for all of our bags to be checked. I didn't mind much though, I was paying too much attention to every tiny little detail of the experience. I'd never even set foot in this side of the airport before - I'd only ever been in the arrivals gate, waiting for my mother to return from some big FBI conference and that had been years ago.

While I was taking note of everything that had happened, the horsemen weren't paying any attention. They were used to all this: the queueing, the restless and often rude people and the stress of having your bag double checked by the customs officer. There were a few raised eyebrows at the magical equipment that Jack had stuffed into his bag but he insisted that he was a children's entertainer, not a criminal, and they thankfully let him through.

They were used to it all. I wasn't. I felt like I was a child again.

Stepping onto the plane felt like some sort of out-of-body experience. It didn't seem like the little metal aircraft was capable of taking us thousands of miles in the air, never mind to a different country. The whole thing was slightly...baffling. 

The horsemen, of course, weren't concerned about this. They were more concerned about who was sitting next to who. That had been their only concern on the whole cab ride to the airport too. 

Dylan had been moaning the entire time we'd been at the airport and it seemed that he was permanently wearing his 'frustrated' face. In my head I'd dubbed him the 'Dad of the group' even if he was a decorated ex-FBI-but-not-really-FBI agent and an amazing magician. And when the horsemen weren't getting on my nerves and drinking all my alcohol, they spent the rest of their time winding each other up. 

I pulled my handbag onto my shoulder and crossed my arms. Lula, Jack and Merritt were arguing about who had to sit next to Atlas for the plane journey and were holding up the queue of people who were attempting to board the plane. The man behind me was letting out several exaggerated sighs to show his annoyance and I was beginning to get impatient. I didn't need to get kicked off the plane before I'd even found my seat.

They couldn't do that, could they? Kick you off the plane? We'd paid for our tickets - or rather, they'd paid for mine - already...

I bit my lip, clenching my fists slightly as Jack started attempting to push Atlas out his way. He wanted to sit next to Lula and Atlas apparently wanted to sit on his own and everyone was beginning to take more than a couple of glances in our direction. They were all wearing glasses and hats in an attempt to 'disguise' themselves to keep attention away from them but there was no hat in the world that would conceal their identity if they kept this up.

For God's sake. This was ridiculous.

I let out a groan and pushed past Dylan, Merritt and Lula who were still stood in the isle, squeezing my way past Jack and Atlas and took the seat nearest the window. I gave them all a long, hard glance before turning my attention back to the window. The sick and nervous feeling that had been growing in my stomach all morning still hadn't left me, if anything it was getting worse.

It was too late to turn back now, though. My path was blocked by Lula and Jack who filed into the seats next to me and as more and more people boarded the plane, I knew that there was no way I could back out now. I had to swallow my nerves and go through with it.

I had to do this.

I felt a light pressure on the seat behind me and turned to see Merritt rooting through his backpack that was balanced on his knee. He shot me a smile as he caught me looking, gesturing to the tangled pile of earphones that he was drawing out. Atlas was sat next to him, a pile of three books on his lap with the spines tuned away so I could read them, with Dylan on the end seat. 

At least I wasn't sat next to Atlas. I didn't think I'd be able to survive a 10+ hour flight next to him; I'd be fidgeting the entire time and worrying about meeting his eye. I could cope with Jack and Lula. I knew that they were planning on going to sleep anyway, because they'd mentioned it at least 3 times whilst queuing for customs.

I knew that, despite how much I'd been begging for it this morning, there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to sleep. Everything that was happening was too new and exciting and there was also the shot of fear that I couldn't shake that we were going to crash into the Atlantic and no one would ever find my body. 

I was being stupid. Planes were even safer than cars. I knew that; I'd looked up the statistics online.

I pulled my bag onto my knee, shooting a look over at Jack and Lula. Jack had his arm slung around Lula's shoulder as she nestled her head into the crook of his neck and I smirked to myself. I was going to have no problems with disturbing them on the flight; they were sickeningly obsessed with each other.

Like Atlas, I'd brought some books to keep me company and I always had my music. Hopefully that would be enough to keep my fears from crashing into the Atlantic at bay. 

'How you feeling?' Jack's voice startled me and I had to blink a few times to digest his words. 

'Fine.' I said firmly, trying to make my voice sound convincing. 

'You ready to go and catch a jerk?' Lula added, a large grin on her face. 

'I'll try.' 

'You need to relax.' Jack said, nudging my shoulder. 'You're going to be fine.' 

'We're the ones who said you should be our extra member of the team.' Lula said, shooting Jack a smile. 'We had to convince Danny that someone other than himself was capable of being a resourceful human being.' 

'He's the one with the problem.' Jack said, rolling his eyes and lowering his voice to a hushed whisper, 'He's a control freak.'

That wasn't the first time that someone had used the term 'control freak' to describe Atlas and while, yes, I'd got the impression that he did like to be in control of things, it struck me that no one tended to use any other expressions to describe his personality. There was surely more to him than that, wasn't there?

'You probably want to get some sleep or something after our early start this morning - ' Lula said, clearly insinuating we'd only been up early because Atlas had gone banging on everyone's door to wake them up as she pulled Jack back over to her so she couldn't snuggle against him. They were almost as affectionate as Ben and Claude, but I wasn't sure that anybody would ever be able to beat them.

'I don't think I'm going to be able to do that.' I said with a sigh, even if my body was calling out for a nap.

'First time on a plane?'

'Not technically, but seeing as the first time I was on a plane I was 2 years old I'm not sure that counts.' I couldn't remember a single thing about the experience and only had the things that my parents had told me about it. I was sure that counted as I didn't have my own memories about it, only ones I'd been told.

'When you came over from Puerto Rico?' Jack said with a grin, clicking his fingers as he remembered this - I presumed Dylan or Ben had told him this and he'd filed it away in his mind for a time when it would be relevant. 

'Yeah, I was born in Puerto Rico. My Dad was from there and my Mom was Turkish and we moved over to the states when she was offered a job in the New York office.' I couldn't remember anything about living in Puerto Rico either and we'd never been back their since. We probably should have seeing as it was where half of our heritage came from.

'She worked for the FBI, right?' I was surprised at how much information Jack and Lula seemed to know about my life and was slightly unnerved seeing as I'd told them none of it. But I suppose I should have felt flattered that they'd even bothered to remember the details. 'That's cool.' 

'Yeah.' I said nodding as a smile crept onto my face. 'She was very cool.' I hadn't spoken about her in a while - Ben and I seemed to be in some sort of unspoken agreement where we didn't talk about them unless we were forced to. I didn't really know when we'd first signed that contract or who'd come up with it but that was just the way we worked now.

It felt...nice to be talking about her, to be talking about the lives that they'd led. Just because I didn't talk about them very much didn't mean I didn't think about them both. I thought about them every single day.

'She was killed on duty.' It didn't sound as morbid in my mind but as soon as the words left my lips I could tell that I'd ruined the mood slightly. But I was talking about my mother, the first time I'd done so in weeks. 'She was trying to stop a gang fight and she got shot. Died instantly.' 

'I'm so sorry.' Lula breathed, her eyes darting between Jack's and mine. Jack was silent; he didn't know what to say. 

'That's how we met Dylan.' I continued, knowing that if I dwelled on her death for too long then I would make myself upset. 'That was 3 years ago and even if he wasn't really an FBI agent at the time, he'd still known Mom.' 

'Did you know that he wasn't a real agent?' I shook my head. That had been another massive shock that we'd both had to get used to although it probably been some good timing; we'd been so wrapped up in grief that neither of us had reacted as strongly as we probably would have at another time.

'No, he only told us a year ago when Dad died. I think he felt a bit guilty about the whole 'keeping secrets' thing.' 

'Your Dad's the one who owned the theatre, right?'

'Yeah, he was obsessed with it all. He was obsessed with a lot of things but he loved everything about the theatre and performing and - ' I shrugged, not realizing that at some point I'd started beaming. 'I guess that part was genetic.' 

One of the flight attendants suddenly started speaking and our conversation trailed off. She was running through all the health and safety procedures - all of which I'd looked up on Google last night.

This was actually happening. I was sat on a plane that was about to leave for Paris.

My parents would have loved that I was doing this, I knew that they would. They would have loved that I was going out of my comfort zone and that I was helping Dylan out at the same time. 

But there was still a hollow emptiness in my chest because they have should have been doing it with me. I shouldn't be doing it on my own, Ben and Mom and Dad should have been the ones sat in the seats in front. My first time on a plane in my adult life shouldn't have been to go on a secret mission, it should have been on a family holiday that we'd spent the last 2 years saving up for.

Jack and Lula being so nice about them and asking the questions had brought all of the memories flooding back as well as the regrets and the missed opportunities and the deep, deep sadness that was ingrained in me and would never truly leave. 

It was times like this when I realized, truly realized, that they'd gone. And I was going to have to carry on going with out them.

\- Thanks for reading guys!


	22. 21

Once the plane took off, everyone finally settled down and started to do their own thing. Lula fell asleep pretty quickly at her snoring was almost enough to distract me from the churning in my stomach. Every time I tried to relax, my mind would remind me that I was 35,000 feet up in the air and could crash at any moment. 

I didn't really appreciate that, especially not when I was trying to read my book. I felt like it had been an age since I'd had some proper time to myself that allowed me to sit down, without having to watch a rehearsal or do the washing, and do something that I wanted to do that didn't count as work. And because of that, I was hoping to get the entire book read by the time we landed in Paris. It shouldn't be too difficult, but I hadn't factored in all of the...distractions.

I'd been half way through the 3rd chapter when voices in the row behind me were getting louder than the thoughts in my head. It seemed that Merritt was trying to hypnotize Atlas, with Jack's 'help', and he was getting pretty sick of it. Or rather, they might as well stop now and save their energy because there was no way he was going to fall for his 'mind tricks'. 

That had looked to be the end of it, until the playing card fell into my lap. I was sure the horsemen had a deck of cards in every single pocket in every single item of clothing that they owned.

'What the hell are you doing?' I secured the page with my bookmark before turning around to peer through the gap between the chairs. 'Some people are trying to read.'

'Would you believe me if I said it was our dear friend Daniel?' Merritt asked and Atlas immediately rolled his eyes. I hadn't heard anyone call him Daniel before and it was clear they only did this to wind him up.

'It wasn't me, you were throwing things at me! Or, at least that's where you were trying to aim them but you're so off target they went the wrong way.' Hence the card had ended up in my lap instead of in Atlas' hair, or whatever Merritt had supposedly been aiming. 

'Maybe you could pack it all in for 5 seconds and start behaving like adults?' I kept my eyes fixed on Merritt, realizing this was the first time I'd really had any direct contact with Atlas since we'd left for the airport. Our awkward encounter this morning came flooding back to my mind - it seemed like we'd had a lot of awkward morning encounters lately - and I swiftly settled back into my seat with my book on my lap.

'Yeah, Danny - ' I heard Merritt tease behind me but I didn't respond. I now had a new respect for Dylan for managing to get any of their top secret projects done with them arguing all the time.

I settled into my book again, digging a cereal bar out of my bag. It had been sat in the cupboard for at least a month and no one had eaten it so I'd figured it wouldn't be missed too much if I brought it with me. The wad of euros that Ben had given me still weighed heavy on my mind - that money should have been going towards buying everyone food, patching up the roof and paying the next load of bills. It shouldn't have been keeping me safe in a foreign country.

But it was too late for me to give it back to him, now. FaceTime didn't have a physical interaction function yet.

I thought Merritt and Jack might have finally stopped messing around - they were an almost toxic combination when they were together - until Lula woke up complaining she was being pelted with something. I looked over to where she was sprawling in her seat, a playing card on her face, and rolled my eyes before turning back to my book as the voices started arguing again behind me, this time joined by Lula.

They could sort this one out on their own. I pulled my headphones out of my bag, pushing them into my ears and clicking on Taylor Swift's reputation. I had a bit of a thing for Taylor Swift. And it was the perfect thing to drown out the sounds of the argument behind me and to distract my mind from panicking about every worse case scenario that could possibly happen. 

I was finally beginning to relax, the words of Taylor Swift sinking into my skin and filling me until I felt almost bursting with the powerful, empowering vibe that she gave off to the point where I thought that I might actually be able to get some sleep until Jack started flailing in the seat next to me, frantically rummaging through all of his pockets. 

For fuck's sake. What had happened now? I yanked my headphones out and turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. He'd better have a good explanation for squirming like a snake when I was just beginning to calm down. 

'Someone's stole my deck of cards!' Was that it? Really? Didn't he have another one somewhere?

'Poor you.' 

'Jack's gone crying to Mommy - ' Merritt teased, before I spun round in my seat and gave him a hard glare which promptly made him drop it. 'Okay, so it turns out that Margot's not the mom of the group with means it really is Atlas which means, we're all fucked - ' Atlas was firmly staring down at the book in his lap, pretending that he couldn't hear anything. I'd already tried that method and it had failed miserably.

'If you guys keep messing around - ' I shot Jack a glance who was still furiously rummaging through his pockets and rolled my eyes. I was willing to bet that Lula was the one who'd taken them, probably hours ago when we'd all been in the taxi and had been hiding them this whole time. 'Then I'm going to turn around and come straight back home the second we arrive in Paris.' 

'But - ' Lula started. 

'I don't give a shit about the Eye or your 'carefully made plan'. I am going to leave if you keep behaving like idiots - ' I targeted the last part to Merritt and Jack who were trying hard to make out that I wasn't staring at the them. 'Is that clear?'

No one answered - Lula looked to be asleep again and I could see a smirk playing on Dylan's face as he flicked through his newspaper. He must have made a promise a long time ago to stay out of all disputes that didn't involve him. It was probably wise.

I took the silence as agreement. They looked almost stunned, if I was honest.

Good.

I turned back around, ignoring the light muttering coming from Merritt and pushing the earphones back into my ears. I was beginning to get a headache, a light pulsing throbbing somewhere behind my temples. I didn't know whether it was something to do with the altitude, or my nerves, or the stress of what I was actually undertaking but something was beginning to make me want to curl up in my chair and just sleep without dreaming.

Why the hell did I even come on this trip? What was I thinking when I said yes? I was good at embracing challenges - acting challenges - but I was not good at being thrown straight into a foreign country and expecting to become some kind of undercover spy.  
***  
Thankfully, the horsemen calmed down after that and remained that way until we landed in Paris. Again, I was taking in every little detail, particularly as now I was surrounded by a whole new culture that I'd only ever seen in films and on TV.

And God, it looked so much better in real life.

In what seemed like no time at all we were piling into the car that Dylan had rented, our bags returned to us and locked in the trunk, as Dylan conversed with the valet in rapid French. I was intently listening to what they were saying, ignoring Jack's moans that he was starving and needed some fries, but the words seemed to be coming out too fast, too fluid for me to make any sense of them. Not that I understood French anyway.

I was grateful for the seemingly endless traffic that was taking over the roads because it gave me a chance to take everything in. I'd never been that interested in buildings or architecture before but now I knew why - the buildings didn't look to be anything special in Washington Heights, but in Paris every single block looked like a work of art. Everything seemed elegant and perfectly symmetrical and everything looked so beautiful that there could have been a alien invasion happening outside and I probably wouldn't have even noticed it.

The tired, leisurely silence inside the car - the only sound being the drawl of some French singer on the radio - was soon broken however, as we crawled forwards in the traffic and approached what looked like a retail park, filled with shops and restaurants. And, a McDonalds.

So this, in true horsemen style, prompted another argument. It seemed as though a single choice couldn't be made without someone objecting to it - God only knew how they'd managed to pull off so many impressive spectacles and tricks without something going dramatically wrong.

'Come on Dylan, I only had 1 cup of coffee this morning - ' Lula complained.

'Yeah man, some people need sustenance.' Jack added, leaning forward to rest his head on the back of Atlas' who, some way, had managed to bag sitting in the front alongside Dylan. 

'I want to eat something that tastes like what it's meant to be and not congealed mush!' Merritt chipped in, nudging me slightly as I drew my eyes away from the window. I'd had a perfectly fine sandwich. It had been up to my standards but obviously not that of the horsemen.

'We're on a tight schedule.' Dylan said crisply. 'We don't have time to stop - ' 

I thought that would be the end of it, before Lula, then Jack, then Merritt, then even Atlas started chanting for Dylan to pull over. Dylan tried to put his foot down again but I knew that even he could see there was no way he was going to win that battle - he shot me a sorry look through the mirror and I had to smirk as he begrudgingly pulled into a parking space, stepped out of the car and had everyone's orders yelled at him. The only thing I was craving was a muffin. And I could always take some of Merritt's fries - I had a lifetime to perfect the art of taking fries.

I was leaning against the window, the gentle click of Atlas' watch helping to soothe the headache that was still roaring in my head. It would have been enough to send me to sleep - the effect of being sat down for more than 11 hours was clearly beginning to have an effect - if it weren't for Merritt and Jack's taunts. They didn't ever seem to stop.

Dylan, eventually, came back with 2 massive bags filled with everyone's orders; most of it seemed to end up on the floor once Jack realised Atlas had stolen his wallet while he'd been rushing round the baggage claim and once Merritt declared he needed to stretch his legs and ended up being stalked by a particularly aggressive pigeon.

We ended up spending more than an hour in the parking lot and I definitely hadn't thought that my first proper experience of Paris would be inside a parked car outside a McDonalds with some coffee, a burger and a blueberry muffin. But it was.

I turned my head towards the window, watching a couple locking up their car and strolling towards the doors walking hand in hand, the woman even wearing a beret. Did French people actually wear berets? Or was that just some American idea that we'd forced onto them.

Berets. Claude. Ben. There was a sharp panging in my chest which had nothing to do with the quick speed in which I'd eaten, having not realized just how hungry I was. I missed them. I missed them so much that it physically hurt.

And while I didn't want to admit it, because I didn't want to admit that I could ever feel something that wasn't indifference among people who I'd known for less than a month, I was beginning to get a bit sick of the horsemen. We'd been in Paris less than 2 hours and I was ready to bang my head against a wall.

Maybe it was because the only people I was used to hearing fight were myself and Ben. But they all so clearly knew each other - they had their inside jokes and their shared experiences and I was so clearly the outsider. Even my friendship with Dylan didn't seem to mean much.

I took another look out the window - even the McDonalds seemed slightly more elegant than the one we had back at home. And even though I was feeling tired and annoyed, I'd been fed and watered and was in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

I could at least try to forget about the pain I was feeling in my chest for a while, couldn't I?

\- Thanks for reading! How are you feeling for Margot? And what do you think's going to happen next?


	23. 22

We eventually made it to our hotel, a huge pale brick building that Atlas insisted smelled like cheese but I couldn't find fault in it. I thought it was simple and elegant which seemed to be the only way to be in Paris. I didn't think I wholly fit this idea.

My room - that I was sharing with Lula - was airy and fairly large. Jack had warned me that Lula had a tendency to talk in her sleep - she'd hit him on the arm for that - but I'd told her that I didn't mind either way. I was just happy to have my own bed, clean and fresh with no damp patches. The prospect of my own bed was possibly the most excited I would feel on the entire trip.

Lula had unpacked all of her bags while I went on the search for the laundry room and by the time I got back to the room, Lula was investigating every inch of it. While I unpacked my own things, I listened to her comments - how it was unfair the boys got a bigger room which included a mini bar, how the bath was barely a sink and should be bigger and how if the car outside didn't stop beeping it's horn she was going to go out and break it for them. 

As I unfolded and refolded all of my clothes, I was still trying to digest the fact that I was in Paris. I wasn't in a dream, I wasn't on a set for a play, everything around me was real. That alone was terrifying.

I was also trying to ignore the fact that, out of the entire population of Paris, I knew 5 people. I was trying to ignore the fact that the 2 people I trusted and loved most in the world were on another continent and were 5 hours behind me. 

I sighed as I put the last of my socks away, taking a look into the main part of the room where Lula was sprawled across the couch trying to get the TV to work.

When I'd agreed to come to Paris, I'd had no idea that I was going to feel like I did. I needed to get a grip. Some people would kill to be in one of the most beautiful cities in the world right now, with a group of very attractive magicians.

Not that that was important because it wasn't. I wasn't eager enough to ask them for their autographs like Claude had. 

Claude. God, I was a mess. I'd been away for only a handful of hours and I was already pining for them. I needed to stop being so stupidly sentimental and get a grip. 

I looked up as Lula knocked on the wardrobe door, drawing me out of my thoughts. To an outsider, I'd been sat on the floor staring at the socks in my hands for a good 5 minutes. I needed to snap out of it.

'I'm going over to the boys room to watch a film in a bit. They've got a bigger TV apparently - ' she said with a slight roll of her eyes. 'Do you want to come?' 

While I knew the horsemen would undoubtedly end up getting on my nerves, I knew that I did. Because I didn't particularly want to be sat alone in a hotel room in Paris wallowing in my own thoughts.

'Yeah, sure.'

'Great! Oh, and I realized that I don't have your number. In case we get lost or I need to contact you or - ' None of them had asked for my number since they'd started staying with us and I hadn't exactly expected them to; I presumed Dylan would just have passed them onto them or something, but apparently not.

'Right - ' 

'I'll give you mine if you just,' I unlocked my cell and passed it to her, biting my lip as I watched her tap my number in hers. Lula always seemed to be relaxed and completely in control, whatever the situation, but she didn't seem shut off either which was a comment I'd received from people on more than a couple of occasions. I knew that under her light, breezy exterior that she must be extraordinarily clever if she'd managed to bag herself a place in the Horsemen.

'Here,' She passed me my cell back and a second later, a unregistered number had sent me a smiley face emoji. I added her number to my contacts, still conscious of the fact she was leaning against the wall in the relaxed way that she always was.

'I know that we can be a lot to get used to.' She said slowly, 'and that we can all be crazy sometimes - ' 

'It's nothing I can't handle.' I said, pushing my suitcase under my bed before looking up at her. Why was she even telling me this? Did she not thing that I'd noticed how crazy they could be? That I wasn't aware of it? Or was this trying to be something of an apology for all the craziness?

Lula seemed outgoing and stubborn in a mix that I hadn't seen before - I didn't think she was the type of person to throw apologies around for no reason at all. Neither was I. Neither were any of the other horsemen, unless it was in a sarcastic way. Maybe that was one of the entry requirements.

'You must be missing home, though.' She said, lowering her voice slightly which forced me to look up at her. No one had actually asked me how I was faring, not that I exactly wanted to and I'd brushed off any concerns that people had for me but it was kind of nice to know that someone was thinking of things from my end of the stick. Not that I would admit just how deeply my home-sickness seemed to be rooting itself inside of me.

'I'm fine.' I said confidently and Lula nodded, pushing herself off the wall and giving me a smile.

'Got it. But, you know, if you ever want to talk to someone who's not a dude then I'm always ready to listen.' I could see the sincerity behind her beaming smile and the wink she shot me. And I appreciated that, even if I knew I'd probably cut off my own arm before going to her. Because I really was a bitch like that. 

'Got it.'  
***  
About an hour later, I found myself sitting in the boys room - suite might be a better word to describe it, seeing as there were 3 double beds and single which they were still fighting over - on the armchair that I'd claimed while the others crammed onto the sofa. Dylan had gone off to bed because apparently jet lag didn't sit well with him. 

I might be slightly more than acquaintances with them - only because I'd been forced to be - but that didn't mean I was completely comfortable with them sprawling all over me like I did with Ben and Claude.

They'd been arguing over what film to watch for what seemed like the last half hour, with Atlas somehow having control of the TV remote and getting annoyed at how they all kept throwing ideas out but none of them seemed so stick. I hoped they decided on one soon or I was going to have to go back to my room because I wasn't sure for how long I'd be able to keep my eyes open for.

'No one wants to watch Mean Girls!' Jack booed as Merritt held his hands up and leaned back, rubbing his eyes with his hands, a sarcastic smile on his face.

'Margot does, that's why she's not saying anything - ' I actually liked Mean Girls, a fact Ben had found to be hilarious when he'd realised because he hadn't taken me for the 'chick flick teen movie' type. Sucks to be him because it's a great movie.

'I actually don't mind Mean Girls...' I said defensively, glaring in Merritt's direction. I wasn't saying anything because the only way they'd be able to hear me above their shouting would undoubtedly wake Dylan up and I didn't want to do that. 

'See!' Merritt insisted but Jack ignored him - so Mean Girls was a definite no.

'Well, Danny's choice is about a guy running around in some tights - ' Merritt continued and I saw Atlas roll his eyes in annoyance.

'Everyone loves Captain America, and the second one's the best.' I definitely hadn't taken Atlas as a comic book movie fan but it made sense in my head the more I thought about it and I had to suppress a shy smile. That made him into even more of a nerd than he already was.

'I still think Forrest Gump - ' Jack said but everyone started booing him as soon as the words had left his mouth.

'Everyone has seen that film at least 16 times.' Lula insisted. 'And I really don't want to make it a 17th. Jaws, on the other hand, never gets old. And a big part of who I am involves people's limbs being cut off so - ' 

I'd yet to see Lula in action to prove this but the alone fact that she seemed so cheerful about it made me slightly wary; I didn't really know how to feel about her penchant for pretending to dismember herself or other people.

'How about Margot picks the film?' Atlas hissed frustratedly and I felt my eyes widen slightly in astonishment. Really? I thought he hated me on the account of our awkward eye contact yesterday morning, but maybe... 'She is the guest - ' 

'She's not a guest.' Jack said with a lazy smile, 'she's a team member.' Did he really consider me a team member? Even when I'd done absolutely nothing to help them out yet? 'But go on then - ' 

'What's your favorite film, Margot?' Merritt asked turning towards me and I sighed. That really was the million dollar question.

'I don't know if I can pick just 1...' I had a whole list of favorite films that I'd compiled over the years so picking a singular film wasn't going to be a easy task.

'Just pick a film.' Atlas said with a sigh, but not unkindly. So, did he not hate me? Where did we stand?

'Reservoir Dogs.' I said, mentally running through my list of favorite films in my head. 'It has an amazing soundtrack.' 

'I did not take you for that kind of girl.' Merritt said pointedly after a moment, a stunned silence clouding room. Was my choice really so surprising? And what did Merritt mean by that?

'What kind of girl did you take me for?' I said, narrowing my eyes slightly.

'Uh oh, I'd watch out if I were you, man - ' Jack said with a grin, 'Tread carefully or she'll cut your balls off.' 

'Nothing.' Merritt said with a fake grin and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Atlas smile. 

'Good.' I said with a nod as Atlas brought the film up on the screen. 'Just because I'm a fish out of water doesn't mean I can't kick your asses if I feel like it.'


	24. 23

Once the film started, my energy levels perked up and I began to shake off the feeling of tiredness and jet-lag that had been weighing me down. It was almost impossible not to, considering the way the soundtrack managed to worm its way under my skin. I'd seen it countless times - almost as many Lula claimed everyone had seen Forrest Gump - and yet its effect on me never seemed to wear off.

I only realized once the credits had finished rolling that, at some point, Merritt had fallen asleep and was now half-lying against Lula. Some people really didn't appreciate artistic genius, did they?

Lula seized the TV remote from the table before Atlas could even move and quickly clicked on Jaws, beaming as she reached for one of the tubes of pringles that were littering the coffee table. Jack was seeing how many playing cards he could balance on top of Merritt's head and Atlas looked to be trying very hard not to blow them off and, simultaneously, trying very hard not to fall asleep.

I was sat with my legs dangling over one side of the armchair with my cell clasped in my hand. I'd been checking it after every other minute since Reservoir Dogs had ended and had worked out the time difference in my head. It would be around 4PM in Washington Heights. Friday nights were usually empty so I didn't think Ben would be doing anything. But what if he was and that was why he hadn't called? What if something had happened?

Texting him first - aside from the standard text saying that we'd landed safely - would show just how strongly I was missing home and I wasn't going to be the first to admit it. I didn't want Ben to be worrying about me anymore than he probably already was. 

'We should do this more often - ' Lula said suddenly, through a mouthful of chips, looking between Jack and Atlas. 'Hang out more. Especially us two,' she nodded at Atlas,' Why don't we hang out more?'

He didn't reply, simply keeping his eyes fixed on the TV screen. Silence was his default response; I wondered if it was some kind of defensive technique.

Lula started prodding him instead, moving around Jack who was still trying to balance an entire pack of cards on different points of Merritt's body. He was doing pretty well so far but I didn't want to be the one to pick all the cards up when Merritt eventually stirred.

Prodding wasn't doing anything either - I didn't know whether Atlas had discovered his new found love for Jaws, or he was on the brink of falling asleep and was so delirious that he didn't even really know what was going on around him anymore. Maybe it was both, but Lula wanted some sort of response to why they didn't hang out more often - I didn't know if anyone could exactly 'hang out' with Atlas - because she started throwing chips at him. That got his attention.

'What?' He complained, picking a chip off his shirt and staring at it for a moment before popping it into his mouth. 

'Why don't we hang out more often?' Lula repeated, raising her brows.

'Because Jack will accuse me of making moves on you.' He replied bluntly and Lula grinned.

'There are no moves that you are capable of making on me that I could find even remotely enticing.' 

'Because of your disgusting eating habits.' Atlas continued, pulling a face as she chomped down 3 chips at the same time. I smirked slightly, dragging my eyes away from my cell for a moment. He sounded like a grumpy old man and it was kind of cute.

'I think you'll find my 'disgusting eating habits' are actually one of my 'quirks'.' Lula said with a smile. 'And Jack loves my quirks.' 

'Is that what he calls them?' Atlas shot back and Lula rolled her eyes, sticking her tongue out at him before taking another handful of chips. 

Merritt suddenly snorted in his sleep and shifted slightly, sending Jack's pile of cards tumbling onto the floor. Jack let out a groan and rolled his eyes before stealing a chip out of Lula's hand.

'Are you going to carry on staring at your cell all night? Just call him - ' My eyes whipped up to Jack's face as he spoke and I felt myself blush. How they fuck had he noticed? I thought I'd kept the checking of my messages discrete. Obviously not. 

I didn't reply, just pushed my cell into my pocket and turned my attention to the TV screen. I hated how observant they were but then I supposed that they'd be shit magicians if they weren't. 

'You can tell him to stop being a dick if he's being annoying.' Lula said with a smile as I looked over at her. She ruffled Jack's hair and kissed him on the cheek. Atlas rolled his eyes because, well, of course he did. 

'I'm not being annoying!' He protested. 

'Then why does Margot look like she wants to strangle you?'

'That's how she looks all the time.' Atlas suddenly added and I instantly narrowed my eyes in his direction. Excuse me?

'Is someone complaining about my constantly passive-aggressive resting bitch face?' I didn't give him chance to respond but pushed on, ignoring the slight raise of his brow. 'Because if you are then you need to take a good long look in the mirror because that's how you look every day. Oh wait you already do, because you're an obnoxious twat.' 

No one responded as I paused for breath, a look of surprise radiating across Atlas' face as I turned away to face the TV. So maybe I'd had a lot of pent up aggression that I wasn't feeling had a good enough output. Jack started laughing, chuckling to himself under his breath, and Atlas gave him a long, hard stare.

'Shut up, it's not funny - ' 

'Yes it is, my man. Anyone who can take the great J. Daniel Atlas down a peg or two is funny.' 

My constant default setting was either passive-aggressive or just down right aggressive and judging from the stunned look on Lula's face, she wasn't expecting me to be quite so vicious about it. But Atlas had been getting on my nerves ever since he'd set foot into the theatre and it seemed it had taken a plane journey and 3,617 miles for me to finally snap.

The only people who could generally get away with directing a joke at me were Ben, Claude and a few select cast members. I didn't do well with people.

'What would you do if I put some chip mush on you - ' Lula giggled, the shock of my words seeming to have wore off a little, even though she was still smirking and Jack was still chuckling to himself. He didn't respond, as per usual, flexing his hands and cracking his knuckles. Was he warming up to knock me out or something?

I noticed his shoulders tense a little, as Lula scooped up some of the chip mush that had been resting at the bottom of the packet onto her finger. That was at least 1 thing I could relate to Atlas on - how much of clean freak we both obviously were.

'Stop it.' He snapped, but his words didn't have enough power to stop the smirk from growing on Lula's face. 'I'm trying to watch the film' 

'Even though you've been trying to not fall asleep for the half hour?'

'Yeah, exactly.' 

'I thought you were too cool to care about anything...' Lula said, pouting slightly. Atlas was scrambling to pick up the last remaining fragments of his pride that I'd sent tumbling and now Lula was attacking his cool, indifferent edge - the last thing he had left.

'This suit is expensive and if you ruin it - '

'Who lounges around in a suit?' Lula shot back with a grin.

'Some people have class and don't spoon chip mush onto their fingers.' 

'Some people snore like baby otters.' I let out a snort before I could stop myself, my face quickly blanching as I met Jack, Lula and Atlas' gaze. Even Merritt was stirring awake, as if the sound of me making something like actual laughter was enough to drag him from the delirium of sleep. I could feel myself heating up. 

Oh God. Why did I do that? I didn't mean to laugh. It wasn't even that funny! Shit.

I didn't think I was going to get the image of Atlas as a baby otter out of my head now. But still, everyone was staring at me and Atlas was glaring in a way that made me want to crawl under the coffee table. 

'That, folks, was the elusive sound of Margot Rosario showing that she's an actual human being as apposed to a stone-faced monster.' I rolled my eyes at Jack and looked away, clutching for my cell. Nothing. 

'Don't get used to it.' I mumbled, running a hand through my hair and attempting to calm my blush. If Atlas didn't hate me before, he certainly did now. Great. And was that what they really thought I was like? A stone-faced monster?

'Margot likes baby otters.' Lula said with a huge grin and I shot her a look.

'Shut up - ' I blushed again as myself and Atlas spoke at the same time, our voices laying over each other before melding together. I looked away quickly, casting another look towards my cell before focusing back onto the TV. 

\- Thanks for reading guys! What are you thinking of Margot's relationship with everyone? And where do you think the plot is going to go?


	25. 24

That night I got one of the best night's sleep that I'd had in ages; I didn't even know if Lula did talk in her sleep because I was too far under to even notice it. Normally, my Saturdays involved getting up early to get ready for the show later but I only got out of bed at 9:30, albeit under duress, and I definitely could have slept for the rest of the day if Jack hadn't come banging on the door, a la Atlas, telling us that we needed to get a move on.

It was safe to say that myself and Lula had some words with him, or rather grumpily shouted them through the door as we forced ourselves out of bed. That was another thing I related to Lula on - our love for our beds and for sleep. But then Jack and Lula started kissing and I awkwardly started getting ready.

I made full use of the floor length mirror that was sat in the corner of the room and ended up second guessing my outfit what felt like a hundred times. I never used to really care what I was wearing, as long as it was clean and I felt comfortable in it, but it seemed that now I was hanging around with a group of 'celebrities' I was becoming more self-conscious and that whole thing was completely bullshit. 

Lula ate the last remaining chip shards with her fingers, for God's sake. None of them cared what I wore, other than myself.

The boys had already ordered room service by the time myself and Lula made our way over to their room but that wasn't the first thing that caught my eye, even if the towering pile of pastries and fruit looked good enough to make my mouth start to water slightly. 

Their room was the same as ours in every respect, the same style, even the same number of windows - the only differing factor was the four coffee tables that had been pushed together to create a dining table and how every single free surface was covered with paper - blueprints, lists, something that looked like mathematical calculations, print-outs from the internet and a handful of tourist guides that were specifically on the Louvre.

I didn't even want to think what time the boys would have had to get up to start planning all of this out. And judging from how only the last dregs of the coffee were swirling in the pot, they'd been dosing themselves up with caffeine to keep themselves awake and moving. I didn't blame them. There looked to be a hundred and one things going on all at once.

Lula headed straight for the croissants and didn't even bat an eyelid at all the paper strewn on the table. I lingered by the door for a moment, my constant nerves rearing their heads and swirling around in my gut. I was actually doing this now, the time for games was over, and that fact alone was beginning to make me feel apprehensive.

What the hell had I got myself in for?

Before I could open my mouth, a pair of hands were on my shoulders and steering me towards a surprisingly empty armchair near the pile of room service. I looked up to see Dylan, his face neutral and his hair unkempt. He pushed me into the chair and started piling an empty plate with food. 

'You need to eat something,' he said warmly, passing me an empty glass as I reached for the jug of orange juice. 'We've got a busy day ahead of us and there's lots of planning to do.' 

'This food is some good shit - ' Lula murmured through a mouthful of croissant, making a thumbs up, as I chomped down some kind of buttery pastry in 2 bites. She was right; it was good shit.

But there was still some small, niggling voice in the back of my mind telling me that I would have preferred some porridge drowned in honey sat at my own dining table back in Washington Heights. 

I couldn't think of that now. I had work to do.

***  
An hour and a half later, I was slowly walking around the Louvre, a camera in my hand, and desperately trying not to trip over any tourists that ran into my path. There must have been hundreds of people milling around me, all of them wearing the same awed expression that was currently on my face. I wasn't even that into art; there was just something totally awe-inspiring about everything that made me stop and stare.

I looked exactly like the typical star-struck tourist (not that it was taking too much acting on my part because I really was feeling pretty star struck) but there was one major difference between me and the rest of the people swelling around me - while they were all taking pictures of the priceless artefacts, I was taking pictures of the security cameras, the exits and entrances, every guard rotation that I saw happen like clockwork and as much of the crowd as I could get in shot.

After we'd all finished breakfast, we'd had a long talk about what we needed to accomplish today and how exactly we were going to do it. In short, we were casing the joint, which felt like something I should be saying in a spy thriller rather than real life. But we needed as much information as physically possible on our side in order to eliminate the room for error. 

I was pretty sure I'd committed that talk to memory. Every word and instruction that had been said was floating around my head as I leisurely made my way around the space that I'd been assigned. In different parts of the museum, the others were doing the exact same task that I currently was. They probably didn't feel so damn nervous, though.

If I didn't already feel like I was in a spy movie, I also had an earpiece pressed into my ear and was currently hearing Merritt moan on about the constant stream of teenagers who kept bumping into him and getting in his way. I would have killed to be able to go on a trip like this when I was in high school and even now, I was reacting the same way as I probably would have then - being completely overwhelmed by everything.

And it wasn't just the fact that I was in the Louvre, it was the fact I was in Paris period. I thought I'd finally become used to the idea but it was clear that I really hadn't if this was the way I felt after stepping into one museum - albeit a world-renowned museum and one of the biggest landmarks in France. But it was the beauty of everything that was leaving me spell-bound.

It was almost enough to make me forgot what I was doing, that I was here on a mission with the horsemen. Almost, but not quite.

Ben would probably be waking up in a hour or two in order to prep for Heights tonight and I wasn't there to help. He'd be the one making the porridge, double-checking the costumes and making sure whoever was in the tech booth that night knew exactly what they were doing. That was normally my job.

Whoever Claude had picked from the chorus line to play Nina better not fuck her up. I felt more connected to Nina than I did some real life people.

I swerved around a group of elderly tourists, pulling my bag close to my chest. Were pickpockets rife in France? And in the Louvre of all places? I didn't know but that didn't mean I was going to risk anything.

My eyes locked onto the figure of a man that I'd noticed snaking around the room for some time now, mainly because the red beret he was wearing made him stand out from the rest of the crowd. He was cute, in a specifically Parisian way that I couldn't put my finger on. I quickly snapped a picture of him, jerking backwards when he turned his head and met my gaze, winking at me before walking away.

'It looks like you have a French admirer - ' Merritt joked in my ear and I rolled my eyes.

'You're supposed to be watching the art not me,' I complained, tucking some hair behind my ear. Ben and Claude's words instantly came flooding back to me about the so called 'love of my life' that I was bound to meet in the city of love. And - 

I startled as a man jerked into me as he walked past, furiously gripping onto the camera before it could slip through my fingers.

I needed to snap out of it. I couldn't let myself keep drifting off into my own thoughts otherwise, sooner or later, I was going to mess up and someone would get hurt and then it would all be on me.

I couldn't let that happen.


	26. 25

We spent the rest of the day making our way around the museum, each one of us making sure to have taken pictures in each of the sections so that when we compiled them all later we could get the clearest possible picture of our location. By the time we'd finished, I felt as though my legs were ready to drop off and I was sure I'd seen every work of at art at least twice. Not that I was really complaining...

Jack and Atlas had also come up with a plan to get themselves past some of the 'staff only' doors to check out what those areas were like. I had absolutely no idea how they'd managed it without being chucked out by the intimidating security guards I'd been sure to take plenty pictures of but seeing how I hadn't heard them screaming through my earpiece for help, I figured everything had gone to plan.

It was nearing 6PM by the time we were leaving and I was definitely ready for some food - the apple and posh sandwich that I'd grabbed from the cafeteria weren't doing anything for me anymore - and it was clear that I wasn't the only one thinking about dinner. The plan was to stop off at a bistro for some food before making our way back to the hotel to start the long task of printing off all the pictures, sorting them out into sections and then building a picture of the entire museum.

I could tell that it was going to be a long night.

I didn't even know what the plan was yet, because no one had deemed that important enough to tell me. But judging from the way they were arguing over some tiny detail that I'd missed because I'd been too busy looking around at the scenery, while the waitress struggled to pass us all of our drinks without breaking anything, I wasn't sure that they entirely knew what the plan was either. 

So that was very reassuring. Not.

'Honestly, we're going to get thrown out in a minute if you can't shut up - ' I said, as the frazzled-looking waitress drifted over to another table and I ran a hand through my hair. 'And it'll either be because you're all being rowdy or someone's figured out who you are. I don't want to end up in a French prison.' 

Everyone had donned their 'disguises' again in an attempt to conceal who they were and I was frankly shocked that someone hadn't pulled them over yet, either to arrest them or to ask them for their autograph. But there was a reason that the good old-fashioned baseball-cap-and-sunglasses-combo was used in pretty much every spy film.

'You'd think she'd be happier now that she's in Paris, wouldn't you?' Merritt stage-whispered, nudging Jack with his arm.

'Yeah, you'd think so,' I sighed, watching Dylan shoot them a disapproving look. He really was the epitome of the 'grumpy Dad with his misbehaving kids' and it was very funny to watch.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to come out like that - ' I murmured after a moment, gripping my glass of lemonade in my hands. I knew that I was tired, that I was in dire need of a rest and that the jetlag was definitely catching up with me and that just put me in an even worse, grumpier mood. Merritt just smiled gently and took a sip of his elderflower cordial, or whatever weirdly-flavored drink he'd ordered. 

Everyone was staring at the plant pot in the middle of the table, seeming to take a collective deep breath together. Today was probably the result of weeks of planning for them, and we hadn't even done anything yet.

'So, I saw you go into the gift shop - ' Lula said after a moment and smiled in my direction. Jack and Merritt's eyes immediately widened and I sighed- that had piqued their interest. 

'Because what you spend your money on is your problem,' Atlas mumbled.

'I bought 2 books on art history.' I said, somewhat defensively, looking down at my feet to check that the bag was still there and this whole thing wasn't some elaborate game because they'd secretly stolen it earlier or something. 

'We're not asking you to become an expert - ' Dylan started and I nodded, because I knew that. That wasn't why I'd bought them. 

'I know but I'm not bothered. At the moment I feel like I'm taking a class that I didn't do any of the reading for. And if that makes me a nerd, well,' I shrugged, smiling slightly, 'I guess I'm a massive nerd and I'm just going to have to live with that.'

I stared down at my half-empty glass, watching the liquid swirl around as I picked it up. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Dylan smiling to himself as he stared at me with an amused look. I rolled my eyes.

'Oh, shut up - ' I said to him, a grin forming on my face as I did so and he smirked. At least I knew - even though I tended to forget it sometimes - that even though I was in a completely foreign country there was at least one face that I could rely on. 

'I didn't say anything - ' He said with a grin, holding his hands up in defense and I rolled my eyes again. The horsemen were all looking rather confused and even Atlas has a quirk in his eyebrow which told me his brain was struggling to put together just what I was talking about.

'Okay, what's going on?' Lula asked and I looked over at Dylan.

'She really is a nerd.' He said good-naturedly.

'Yeah,' I said with a sigh, 'because all nerd's go to college for 6 months and then drop out.'

'What?' Lula asked and I downed the rest of my lemonade, the words bitter on my tongue. I hadn't had to explain this part of my life for a long time and I was glad of that. It wasn't something I was particularly proud of.

'That's what I did.' I murmured, looking down at my hands because it was easier than meeting the inquisitive eyes of the horsemen. 'I actually am Nina Rosario.'

'Why'd you drop out?' Atlas asked.

'I couldn't handle the amount of work and the stress of it all; I didn't like how much debt I was putting my family in and I hated the distance between us. I guess I'm not very good at being away from home - '

'No shit.' Merritt said with a pointed look in my direction. I could have shouted at him - possible insults were already swimming around in my head - but I just smiled because it was true. The first time I'd ever been away from home was when I'd moved to the other side of the country; I think I'd shocked myself a bit too much and I didn't know if I'd ever be able to work back from that.

'What did you major in?' Jack asked.

'Theatre and Performance studies, obviously.'

'And the big question - where did you go?' Merritt asked and I took a deep breath before replying. I was used to the shocked reactions that my answer usually prompted.

'Stanford.' Merritt let out a low whistle and I rolled my eyes. It was nothing that I hadn't heard before. But I did feel a slight warmth of pride at the impressed look on Atlas' face - because Stanford was Stanford and the fact that I'd even got in was enough to impress people.

'We've got a clever girl on the team.' Jack said with a grin but I narrowed my eyes slightly.

'Where you did or didn't go to college doesn't have anything to do with your level of intelligence, not really.' I said firmly. Claude hadn't gone to college and neither had Ben and they were some of the smartest people that I knew.

'Clearly, because you dropped out.' Dylan said with a smile and I rolled my eyes, feeling myself blush a little. I'd been so excited when I'd received the letter but it had only taken a couple of hours for it to sink in about what I'd actually be doing. About how far I'd be moving away from everything and everyone that I'd ever known.

'Maybe if I'd had picked somewhere closer then it would have gone differently.' I mused after a moment. My entire life could have been completely different and that alone was a scary thought. Would I be performing the way that I was? Would I be such good friends with Claude? Would I ever have met Aaru?

I'd never know because that was the way life worked and I was going to send myself crazy if I kept thinking about all the possibilities about what might have been. I didn't want to think about how different I could have been as a person if I'd never set my eyes on Aaru. 

Our food finally arrived and everyone seemed to forget about my stint at Stanford from that point onwards, which I was grateful for. Dinner was delicious, as I'd expected, and it seemed to be no time at all before we were leaving the bistro and were making our way back to the hotel.

Dylan paid for the meal, claiming that it was his treat for us all making it this far. I'd tried to pay at least my share of the cost but he'd refused, saying it was the least he could do after I'd let them stay with us.

The night was colder than I'd expected and I walked quickly with my arms wrapped around myself. The streets looked beautiful even at night but I'd had more than enough experience in the streets at night to know that things could quickly turn ugly.

I felt a pair of eyes on me and turned to see Atlas quickly look out into the street, running a hand through his hair. Things were still weird between us - or at least I felt like they were - and I didn't entirely know what to do about it. I couldn't feel the tension as much when we were all together; it was only when we were alone that I could truly feel that there was something...off about our relationship. It wasn't hard to think what it was.

I sighed and turned around again, feeling the same feeling that someone was watching me, but was surprised to see that Atlas was looking down at his phone, not up at me. No one else was walking behind him and yet, my skin was prickling as though someone was watching me.

I was being stupid. It was my paranoia kicking in again and I needed to push it away and calm down. I was fine; I was making my way back to the hotel and when I was there I was going to FaceTime Ben again. 

Everything was fine.


	27. 26

I stared back at my reflection in the dark screen, pushing the hair from my face. I'd just finished my hour conversation with Ben and Claude and the now blank screen made my heart ache just a little - everything was fine back home but that didn't dispel the pain in my chest that I could only contact them through a computer screen. But I was going to have to get over that feeling and quickly. I was being ridiculous. 

I was sat in the bedroom area, my laptop sitting on my knees since I'd gone back to my room earlier to get it. The horsemen were busy sorting through the stacks of pictures that we'd taken from in the museum, after messing around for half an hour with the printer, and were beginning to draw up a detailed blueprint of the whole museum. Atlas was drawing the whole thing out and kept batting Merritt away when he'd shake the table slightly just to annoy him. 

It seemed like we'd been at it for more than the couple of hours that we had. No one had mentioned how late it was getting and how much we still had to do. Maybe they didn't even think about that anymore - they just worked until the whole thing was completed. Time of day didn't matter. They had room service; the coffee wasn't running out any time soon.

Having said that, it was clear that as time drew on people's tempers were beginning to get shorter and everyone was starting to get a little bit snappier than normal. I was kind of surprised that they'd been able to get on for this long without biting anyone's head off but then, I had to keep reminding myself, that even though they could come across as somewhat dysfunctional at times they were a team.

A good, solid team who'd been able to pull of massive stunts in the past and I was sure there were a whole host of tricks that they'd completed that I didn't know about. They had this planning thing down.

'Okay, let's take 5 - ' Dylan said, stepping back and running a hand through his hair. I could see the faint glimmers of silver from where I sat because while it was easy to forget it, Dylan was getting on. I didn't know exactly how old he was but I knew he had to be at least 50. 'Go and get some more drinks and snacks. We're going to power through all this. I doubt we'll be getting much sleep tonight.' 

I heard Merritt murmur something under his breath but it was lost on me as he made his way over to the mini bar at the side of the room. Lula and Jack quickly left the room, their arms joined, and their eyes lighting up as they talked about the 24 hour café across the street. I'd shot it a glance as we'd passed and even I had to admit that it had smelled pretty good.

I might not be a morning person but I wasn't particularly good at staying up late either. I could already feel my eyes getting heavy and I knew that it wouldn't be long before I was curling up in the corner of the room and having a nap if I didn't do something. 

Luckily, I knew enough about myself to know exactly what I needed to keep myself awake and motivated. And it wasn't coffee. It was my music. There was nothing like a good, cheesy show tune to make me feel more energized.

I was thinking Legally Blonde. Legally Blonde was always a safe choice.

If anyone ever found out that that I - someone whose pretty much whole aesthetic was one of glares and sharp edges - loved one of the peppiest, happiest musicals that had ever been written I knew that I'd never, ever hear the end of it. 

Ben always made fun of me because my personality was such a stark contrast to everything that the musical stood for but he'd been teasing me about it for years and I didn't even react to it anymore. It was too damn good for me to listen to him.

Elle Woods and I could take on the world.

Or at least, Elle Woods, I and Bruiser could.  
***  
I walked leisurely back down the corridor, my legs glad of some movement after being kept confined to one room for the last several hours. My cell was gripped in my hand and my earphones pressed into my ears as I quietly hummed along to the music, my eyes keeping track of the room numbers that I passed. Every single inch of every corridor looked the same so it would be far too easy to lose track of where you were if you weren't careful.

It was like the beginning of some horror movie. A classy, elegant French-themed horror movie. I didn't even know if films like this existed - I might have just invented a whole new genre. Maybe I should go into film-making?

There was something comforting about having one of my favorite musicals running through my mind; maybe because I listened to it so many times that it was familiar to me now and almost reminded me of home, even though nothing else around me did. I'd had many a sing along with Ben, even if I had had to drag him into it and he'd always said he felt awkward singing love songs with me.

I'd ignored it whenever he said this, saying he was an actor and could just imagine that I was Claude instead.

I was halfway down the corridor when I realized someone was walking down from the opposite end, a coffee cup in their hand. As I got closer, my eyes ran over their figure and I registered that it was in fact Atlas. Because of course it was. Because our whole lives existed for awkward moments to happen between us that haunted me for the rest of eternity. 

His eyes were pinned on my figure and he close enough to have been able to have seen me dancing and singing along to the music that was blasting through my ears. He was going to think that I was a loon. I wiped the smile from my face and channeled his own stern expression.

He didn't say anything in recognition, just opened the door to the hotel room and passed through. The door remained open for a split second as I passed through and Atlas made his way over to the table strewn with paper and his precious blueprint. Had he meant to hold the door open or had it just happened?

Would he be that nice was the real question?

Maybe I was being too harsh on him. Maybe was sleep-deprived brain was creating situations that didn't actually exist.

I looked over at the table where Atlas was carefully sorting through the photographs with the care of someone who new exactly what they were doing which was refreshing because I didn't have much of a clue. We'd put together a picture of the security system with the museum and their shift-changes, the holes they needed to sort out as well as the strengths and had a pretty good idea about how a possible thief would go about stealing a painting. 

No one had said this to me in so many words but that was what I'd been able to piece it together on my own. I'd been hoping that I'd be able to start reading one of the art history books that I bought from my the museum but it was clear that, judging from how the night was going, there was little chance of me being able to do this. 

'Do you ever stop singing?' My eyes shot up as I started blushing and his words sank in. I'd been so absorbed in my thoughts that I hadn't even realized that I'd started singing to myself. Crap. Double crap. Was Atlas smirking or rolling his eyes at me? I couldn't tell, he had his back to me.

'Do you ever stop being an ass?' He opened his mouth to speak but, at that moment, Jack and Lula burst into the room, both triumphantly holding a carton of coffee cups and a bag that looked to be filled with cookies. I didn't even care about Atlas any more; I didn't care that he'd made me feel flustered yet again. 

There were cookies in the room. And they were way more important.

FEATURED SONGS:  
\- Legally Blonde - Omigod You Guys

\- What did you think? What's your favourite song from the Legally Blonde soundtrack? Thanks for reading!


	28. 27

I didn't know what time it was I fell into bed that night - or maybe that morning, because it definitely felt like it was morning - but I felt as though I'd only been asleep for 5 minutes when myself and Lula were woken up by Jack banging on the door again. Lula started groaning and rolled over to face the wall, pulling the duvet up over her head. I didn't look like she was going to be moving any time soon, not that I could blame her.

I slowly pushed myself to my feet, running a hand through my disheveled hair and forcing my legs to walk towards the door. Did he not understand that some people liked their sleep? At this point, I was fairly certain that at least 50% of Jack's entire body was made up of caffeine. 

'For God's sake Jack when I get my hands on you I'll - ' I moaned loudly, hoping it might wake Lula up a little more, before being cut off by the figure in front of me, someone who definitely was not Jack. 

It was Atlas, because of course it bloody was. He had to be the one to do everything didn't he? He was stood with his arms folded, dressed immaculately as per usual and was making me feel very inadequate in my baggy t-shirt and leggings. 

'I'm sorry to disappoint.' He said dryly and I rolled my eyes. 'You were obviously looking forward to seeing him - ' 

'Funny. I was looking forward to getting a lie in for once, actually.' I hurriedly tried to smooth out my hair a little, realizing just how bedraggled to him who never seemed to have a hair out of place before remembering that he had seen me first thing in the morning on a few occasions. He was probably used to it by now.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it but he was just one of those people that I always wanted to impress and didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of or for him to think anything bad of me. But I supposed that plan had already been derailed with our series of awkward encounters. He probably thought I was mental by now.

I realized I'd just been stood staring at him, blankly, like an idiot and turned back into my room to look towards Lula as though I was checking on her.

'Just meet in our room when you're ready.' 

'Sure.'

'I'm hibernating!' I rolled my eyes as Lula's voice echoed around the room and Atlas smirk a little. Because while he didn't show it particularly often, he did have a sense of humor.

'I might have to bribe her with something.' I pondered. 'Or drag her out.' 

'Tickle her feet.' Atlas said, sliding his hands into his pockets. 'Jack found out that she hates and we've been using it ever since.' 

'I'm going to kill you!' Lula yelled and I smiled. That seemed like a pretty personal story to be sharing with someone he didn't really know that well, especially someone as closed off as Atlas. 

'I knew that already.' 

'You're going to wake up tomorrow and find that all your shirts have disappeared and all your brogues have holes in the bottom and - '

'I didn't think you'd resort to such childish methods.' He joked but still managing to keep a straight face. 

'I'm coming for you Atlas!' 

'I look forward to it.' He said nonchalantly, in a way that made me know Lula could threaten him with anything and it would still prompt the same reaction. He was guarded like that and there'd be no way he was letting them down that easily. 

I watched him turn and start walking back down the corridor, his hands still in his pockets. Most people would probably be slightly terrified of Lula but not him. Maybe that was just because he was used to her madness. Or maybe it's because he wasn't most people.

Stop it, Margot. Knock it off. I drew myself away from his retreating figure and shut the door.

'Did he look scared?' Lula called from her bed, the duvet tucked around her torso as she sat up.

'He was practically shaking in his brogues.' I answered flatly but Lula just sighed.

'Good. Because he won't have them for much longer. I've got some scissors in my bag and maybe then he'll get it into his head that people don't appreciate being woken up at 7 in the morning.' 

While I definitely didn't want to get in Lula's way when she had a plan, I had a feeling that Atlas wasn't going to willingly let her have his favorite pair of shoes - she'd told me he had several pairs of the same style. He seemed like the type to keep them in a vault or something. 

Why was I thinking this deeply about his shoes? They were shoes. Just shoes.

Shoes that belonged to him...

***  
We spent basically the entire day staring at the - amazingly detailed - that Atlas had drawn up and going through every single tiny detail of what could and couldn't go wrong and working out how we could avoid this from happening. Or rather, I sat in the armchair which had now been dubbed as 'my armchair' and watched the rest of the horsemen talk about the problems while I listened to them. I felt as though my head was going to explode just by listening to them - there was so to consider that I hadn't even thought about and just thinking about it made my head spin a little.

Since nobody had sat me down and explained what the hell was going on - and I wasn't sure they were going to, nor would there be time to do so - I was having to pick up details on my own as and when I heard them or pieced them together. The Eye wanted to expose the person behind countless thefts of priceless and important works of art and they were hoping that they'd be lured in by the new unveiling at the Louvre. There was nothing to say that they would be, of course, this whole thing was resting on a guess. Not even an estimate really, a guess.

It didn't really seem like the kind of thing the Eye would be invested in either, when I considered what other projects they'd sent the horsemen jetting across the world for. 

By the time dinner was approaching, I'd absorbed so much information of people's names and timings for things and backup plans and backup backup plans and safety exit routes that I felt as though I had no room left in my brain for anything else. And I had to somehow commit it all to memory because, as Atlas had said, cells could be hacked so we couldn't store the information there and our minds couldn't. 

It seemed that the Eye - or the horsemen, I wasn't quite sure - had done their research because they had 5 suspects as to who they thought could be behind all of the art thefts. And, luckily, all 5 of them were due to attend the unveiling on Wednesday, according to the guest list that Dylan had somehow managed to get his hands on. 

1 of the 5 men - because they were all men because of course they were - could be behind the whole thing. And it was our job to find out which one it was.

Each of us had been assigned a target that we had to follow for the night and that way we'd hopefully be able to identify which one of them was thief as suddenly dashing off in direction of the painting would definitely flag up some suspicion now I was looking out for it.

Dylan was going to be running the whole operation from the lowest floor which was where all the cleaning and care-taking equipment was kept because it turned out he was something of a technology genius - which was something I had not known about him - since he'd basically taught himself to be. 

My target was a man named John Ryan who was a typical rich-white-dude who had appeared out of nowhere 18 months ago and was now, somehow, on the elective board of governors. 

I basically just had to follow him around and if he called me out on it I had to pretend to be madly in love with him, he wasn't bad looking to be fair, and flirt my ass off. At least that was what Merritt had told me to do. Atlas hadn't seemed as taken with this idea as Merritt was so I was just hoping that it wouldn't come to that. 

Lula was going to be stationed in the kitchens watching one of the pastry chefs, Jack was playing a security guard, Merritt was, like myself, playing a guest to keep an eye on a mysterious Italian benefactor and Atlas was posing as a waiter. We'd all learned the details of all of the suspects just in case one of us needed to step in to help someone else out. I was hoping it wouldn't come to that, either. My nerves were beginning to skyrocket and I could do absolutely nothing to stop them.

The plan was, obviously, to find out which one of the suspects was the thief and to then stop them from stealing again. We had half a dozen escape plans and contingency plans in case everything ended up going pear-shaped and we had to make a speedy exit. I couldn't fault their planning - they seemed to have thought of every eventuality which at least reassured me a little. But only a little.

Everything had started to feel very, very real now that I knew what was actually going to happen on the night - I had my fake name and invite ready to go - and there was no denying the fact that this was all happening now. I had to remind myself that I was just playing a role; that's all I was doing and that was nothing different from what I normally did. 

It just had to be the best performance of my life. That was the only difference.

\- Thoughts? Thank you so much for reading!


	29. 28

I carefully placed my cup of tea down on the nightstand, curling back under my blanket and resting my head on my pillow. Dylan had let us go around two hours ago and since then I'd stuffed myself with some fancy fish dish that Lula made us order, had a quick shower and marveled at the water pressure before snuggling into my bed as Lula flicked through the TV and reached for my art history books. Finally.

I'd already spent an hour researching into the history of the painting that was being unveiled on Wednesday before I'd even picked up the first book and, even though most of the terminology was completely lost by me, I was beginning to feel like I actually had a small chance of passing this class - or the class that I'd invented for myself because that's how much of a nerd I was and no one had actually forced me onto this crazy mission. 

And while I kept trying to be objective and look at everything from an outsider perspective, I was finding myself to be quickly getting swept up in the world of art and artists that I'd never even knew existed, even if I did have to keep Googling words that I didn't understand, painting techniques and movements that I'd never heard of. 

I turned over the page, looking up at the sound of laughter. The boys had come over to our room at some point during my research and I hadn't bothered to go and join them. I'd heard them arguing about what film to watch earlier so I guessed it was going to be a replay of the other night. I'd much rather be doing my research then sitting down in front of a film that I didn't even want to watch.

Lula kept coming into the room and asking if I was alright and did I want to sit with them and every time she did I turned them down. I didn't want to watch whatever mindless comedy they were watching, not when I was being sucked into the world of art history as though it was some kind of deeply academic black hole. At least I was guessing it was a comedy, judging from the snorts I kept hearing from Merritt and Jack.

I had my headphones in as well and was listening to David Bowie in an attempt to block out all the sound. I didn't normally read to music but usually did with non-fiction, otherwise I'd get so bored and abandon the book completely. But not this book. I didn't even need the music to keep me engrossed, the subject matter was doing that all on its own. 

I really was a nerd, wasn't I? Even Atlas was in the living room watching the movie.

I looked up as I caught sight of a flashing light coming out of the corner of my eye. My laptop, or rather, Ben and I's laptop. It was Ben; it had to be. 

I scrambled across the room to my laptop and dragged into onto my bed, pushing the books to the end of it and pushing some hair behind my ear. I didn't miss him or Claude as much today, the deep longing in my chest didn't feel as tight, but that was mainly because I didn't have the time or the energy to. I had too many other things that I had to think about.

'Hey!' I felt my face light up as Ben materialized on the screen. 'How're you doing? How's life as a spy?'

'I'm good.' I said with a smile. 'I feel like I've gone back to college, though, with the amount of information that I've had to force into my head today.' 

'I'm guessing you can't tell me any of it?' He asked with a smirk. 

'Even if I wanted to tell you everything, which I don't, you'd have to sit there for the rest of the year while I go through all the escape plans and back up ideas I have to remember.'

'At least they're being thorough.' Ben said, his tone turning more serious. 'Because if Dylan puts you in any danger then I'm going to have to come after him.' I rolled my eyes at Ben's stern expression and raised my brow at him.

'You might be pretty tall but I'm not sure what you're going to be able to do against a FBI agent.' 

'A former FBI agent.' Ben reminded me with a nod. 'Now he spends all of his time pulling rabbits out of hats.'

'That's not what he does, at all, and you know it.' 

'I'll believe it when he steals us enough money to live off.' Ben kept joking that if Dylan could just break into a small bank, not even an important one, then we'd have enough money to live off for the rest of our lives. 'We should head down to the Met and see if we can steal ourselves some piece of priceless art.' 

'We're trying to stop things from being stolen here.' I reminded him, 'And besides, I don't really want to be spending the rest of my life rotting in prison.' I drew my eyes away from the screen as Jack started hysterically laughing - whether it was about the film or some snide comment Merritt had made I didn't know. 'They're watching a film - ' I said in response to the curious look on Ben's face. 'I don't know what it is. Some kind of brainless comedy.'

'So the kind of film that I'd like?' Ben asked with a large grin. 

'Exactly like the kind of film you'd like.' That was another one of Ben and I's differences - we had completely conflicting film choices. Ben would much rather sit down and watch something light-hearted and silly while I needed something that had a bit more grit and drama to it. It was almost unreal how that basically summarized our personalities. 

'Why aren't you watching the film with them?' 

'Because I'm talking to you.' I said firmly, forcing a smile as I read into the lines that were forming on Ben's face. He knew why I wasn't watching it with them, even if I wasn't saying it. His eyes were stern as he looked back at me and I sighed, looking down at my hands.

Why did he always manage to get me onto the things that I didn't want to talk about? I didn't answer him.

'You know what I mean.' He said flatly and I sighed, swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat. 

'They're...nice people - ' I said, switching the world 'lovely' for 'nice'. Ben would have been able to see through the word 'lovely' in 10 seconds flat. I never used the word lovely. Never.

'But?' I sighed again. 

'Just because they're nice people, doesn't mean I feel particularly close to them.' I mumbled, the hollow ache in my chest suddenly hitting me harder than it had before. Because that was the truth. I didn't feel like any of them really knew me, really got me. And that made the loneliness feel all the worse. 

Ben didn't speak, just started back at me with a look that reminded me of a kicked puppy. I hadn't wanted to admit just how lonely I was feeling for this exact reason; I didn't want Ben, or Claude, to feel sorry for me. I'd chosen to come to Paris of my own volition and I didn't need any more bruises on my pride to tell me that it wasn't everything Claude had cracked it up to be.

I wasn't handling it as well as Claude had said I would. Or how well I'd thought I would.

I realized that Ben was sat at the piano, the laptop resting on the top. Why was he sat at the piano? Had he been practicing something?

'You practicing something?' Ben hurriedly blinked, clearly been deep into his thoughts before a smile bloomed on his face.

'Actually, I was hoping that you could practice with me. I haven't done any singing today and I don't want to get rusty and let the side down.' 

'What?' Practice? Now? But I was in a hotel room surrounded by people who were watching a film and were definitely not expecting me to burst into song.

'Yeah, just run a couple of songs. That okay?'

'Not while they're watching. I don't want to interrupt them - ' 

'You just said how you don't get on with them.' 

'I didn't say that!' I shot back, glaring at Ben. He was smirking because of course he was.

'Stuff them! I want to run some numbers.' 

'They're all going to wonder what I'm doing.' I said through gritted teeth, running a hand through my hair as I peered into the main part of the room. They were all still sat in front of the TV. I cursed for the tenth time as to why they weren't watching a high-speed thriller. The sound of gun shots might have been able to mask the sound of my singing.

'Yes, they are. They're going to wonder how you sound so good.' Ben gave a quick flourish on the piano and I rolled my eyes, feeling myself smile a little. It was hard not to when Ben's smile was so infectious.

'Fine.' Ben pumped his fist and I rolled my eyes again. He was such a dork. 'What's first?'

'You're The Top.' A fantastic song, a classic musical theatre number and one guaranteed to get a reaction from the audience. Myself and Ben performed this one all the time. 

I didn't think we needed to practice it again. But apparently Ben did. 

Ben started the opening chords and I tried to focus on the song and the words and allowed myself to get swept up in the story and the character that I was creating in my head. I was a singer for God's sake! The horsemen knew that. They knew that, just like them, I had to practice. 

And, if I was perfectly honest, I'd missed singing with Ben. Even if it had only been a couple of days. I was used to doing it every day and I was going into withdrawal.

It was getting harder, however, to focus on the song when I spotted Dylan peering his head around the corner into the bedroom and smiling like an idiot. He was a dork too. I was going to hit him after this. 

'That wasn't so bad?' Ben said with a grin when we'd finished.

'Yes, that was so bad.' I said, giving Dylan a look which made him smile even wider. 

'Too bad.' Ben said, reaching over the top of the piano to grab some more sheet music and shuffling through it. 'I've got a couple more songs that I want to do.' 

FEATURED SONGS:  
\- Anything Goes - You're The Top

\- Thanks for reading! Any thoughts?


	30. 29

After Jack and Atlas' rude awakenings over the last two days, it seemed that I'd now conditioned myself to wake up early. The time had barely passed 6 when I rolled onto my side and looked over at Lula's figure, the duvet tightly tucked around her as she slept. I paused for a minute, checking that the corridor really was silent and there was no one shouting our names. It was silent.

I'd conditioned myself into being a morning person after only two days. Either that, or I'd been hypnotized and, knowing Merritt, this didn't seem like too much of a stretch and I definitely wouldn't put it past him. 

I'd tried to go back to sleep but after tossing and turning for half an hour, I'd given up and quickly got dressed and pulled my hair into a ponytail. The sun was already streaming through the windows so I figured that an early morning walk wouldn't look too out of place. I could go out in search of some breakfast too, and maybe even pick up a beret for Claude. I felt as though I wasn't making the most of my time in Paris and was instead spending my time in my room.

I couldn't spend the whole of my time in Paris stuck in my hotel room reading art history books, Face-Timing Ben and moping around because I was missing home. Outside was one of the most beautiful cities in the entire world, just waiting for me to explore. Outside was no Aaru.

I pulled my coat on, grabbed my purse and silently left the room.

It wasn't that I didn't like the horsemen because I really did. But after voicing my opinion last night to Ben, it had fully cemented in my head. I liked them but I didn't feel like I could really talk to them or fully connect with them. I didn't feel like I had any deep, meaningful similarities with any of them. I could always spend time with Dylan, I had known him the longest, but he seemed so busy that I didn't want to get in his way and there was no doubt that hanging out with him would also mean hanging out with the horsemen and that was kind of the whole point.

I needed to get out more. I'd spent too much time confined to four walls and my mind had begun to go a little bit crazy. I was used to spending time on my own, that was what I preferred most of the time. Expecting myself to change because of one trip to Paris didn't make any sense and I needed to give myself a break.

I was hit by a cool wave of air as soon as I stepped out of the foyer and I instantly felt refreshed. It wasn't hot - it was no where near the peak summer temperatures we sometimes got back home - but it wasn't cold either. It was that comfortable medium that made it seem like everything was right in the world.

That warm breeze coupled with the glow of the sun and the smell of coffee and freshly-baked bread wafting down the sidewalk was enough to brighten my mood and calm down my frantic thoughts.

The beautiful scenery helped too. Everything looked as though it had been put there on purpose; everything was perfectly elegant and clean but with something slightly...off about it to stop it from seeming too perfect. And I was sure that the streets didn't look like this every day and when it was raining it wouldn't have this effect but, right now, it was the kind of perfect that I needed.

I started walking away from the hotel, no real idea as to where I was going. But that didn't matter; I knew my way back to the hotel and I knew what street it was on so wherever I went I'd be able to find my way back. I didn't really care where I went, as long as I managed to get my hands on some of the food that smelled amazing. 

I took my cell from my purse and started taking pictures of all the pretty buildings that I came across to show Claude. I was supposed to be on a sort of vacation for God's sake. I could at least make it try and look like I was having an amazing time. 

Not that I wasn't having a good time. Just...I didn't know. I couldn't explain it. I was just missing Ben and Claude.

I caught sight of what looked like a pastry shop down the street and my mouth almost started watering. France was known for it's amazing pastry, wasn't it? I definitely needed to get on that train. 

I quickly crossed the street, sucking in a deep breath as I made it to the other side. There was that feeling again. The voice whispering in my ears, the tightening in my stomach and my throat. The paranoia. Someone was watching me. I wasn't alone. 

Everyone around me was tucking into their breakfasts and walking their dogs and minding their own business. It was stupid. No one was watching me. And yet the voice remained in the back of my head, it's voice pushing itself down my spine. 

I stopped on the street corner, re-doing my ponytail and fixing my sunglasses so that my hands would have something to do rather than clenching themselves into fists. 

My paranoia and anxiety would hit me like a train sometimes. Other times it was the voice in the back of my head. But whatever form it took, it would appear in the blink of an eye and I'd have to stop and push it back down. 

I knew the cause, too. That was the worst thing. Though my relationship with Aaru was the cause of most things so it wasn't difficult to identify really. His actions had left me living in a near-constant state of paranoia. I never knew whether he was angry or in a good mood, whether he wanted to hit me or kiss me. 

I swallowed thickly as I stepped back to allow a woman to pass, a tiny ball of fluff that she called a dog trailing after her. I wasn't going to let him drag me down, not while I was finally free and sunning myself in Paris. I wouldn't give him that power.

But I didn't have to give it to him. He just took it.

***  
Half an hour later, I'd found the bakery of dreams and took another 10 minutes choosing what exactly I wanted for my breakfast. Everything smelled so delicious and I could have spent the whole day just stood at the shop window soaking up the intoxicating scent but I'd seen the wary looks the shopkeeper had started throwing my way and I didn't want to risk her not serving me. I couldn't not be allowed to eat something.

That was how I ended up walking back to the hotel - proud of myself that I really had know what street it was on and been able to find my way back - with a cup of coffee and a lemon and raisin pastry clutched in my hand. I'd been taking tiny bites in an attempt to make it last longer but it was taking every ounce of my willpower not to eat it in one go.

Merritt was standing outside the hotel, his signature hat casting long shadows on the ground. My feet drew to a halt as I crossed the road and he pushed himself off the wall that he'd been leaning on. What was going on? Had something happened? Why hadn't they called me on my cell?

'What's going on?'

'I needed some air.' Merritt answered nonchalantly and I felt myself let out a breath. Nothing had happened. Merritt just wanted to get outside. 

'Right.' 

'After a while too much Danny and Jack make me want to claw my eyes out.' 

'That's how I feel all the time around you guys,' I said, the sarcasm strong in my voice. Maybe not all of the time. But a good proportion of it.

'Charming.' I didn't really know what to make of Merritt. I hadn't spent much time alone with him, mainly because he seemed to spend all of it annoying someone. But I knew that there was probably more to him than I first realized; there had to be something else being his casual persona that made him so clever.

'How do you feel about going for a stroll?' He asked me with a smile, before linking my arm and beginning to walk off in the opposite direction that I'd gone in, leaving me no choice but to follow him. Why did he want to go on a walk with me? 

He was the most harmless out of all of the horsemen, though. At least, that was the conclusion I'd come to at the moment.

'You're not going to hypnotize me, are you?' I asked, looking over at him. He rolled his eyes at me.

'As if I'd do that. I only do that when people annoy me.' 

Great. Now I had to that to think about. Would I even know if I'd been hypnotized? Wasn't that the whole point of being hypnotized?

'How's Paris treating you so far?' He asked after a moment, seemingly genuinely interested in my answer. Or maybe that was just how he always sounded. He did basically get paid to manipulate people.

'It's a beautiful city.' 

'It's a beautiful city for someone who's never left Washington Heights before.' I blinked. How did he know that? Who'd told him that? 'I guessed. It's still pretty beautiful to the rest of us but it takes a certain kind of some to stand staring at the sidewalk as though it's made of gold.' 

'Shut up - ' He smirked at my reaction and I looked away, my eyes focusing on the sidewalk beneath our feet. I didn't look at it as though it was made of gold, did I? And how would Merritt know that? Had he been watching me?

'How are you feeling about Wednesday?' 

'Fine.' My tone was too clipped and severe, I knew it. He'd be able to read right through that. I sounded like the least fine person in the world.

It wasn't that I wasn't fine, just a bit...uncertain. Because I had absolutely no idea what I was walking into and I couldn't remember the last time that I'd felt like that.

I realized that Merritt had been clicking his fingers on the hand that wasn't looped in my arm only when he stopped doing it for a split second to adjust his hat. He'd been doing that since we'd started walking. Clicking must be his tick for something. Was he nervous? Was that his reason for asking me this? He wanted some comfort that it wasn't totally alien to be scared?

'You're a better actress than I thought, then.' He joked with a smile. 'Because I can't remember a single thing about my suspect other than they have alopecia. And that's not a great feeling.' 

'I'm a nerd. I love learning about new things.' I let my new knowledge sink in for a moment. Even Merritt, who'd been doing this kind of thing for years, was worried. It was okay that the prospect of Wednesday was keeping me up at night. It was okay that every time I thought about flirting with Ryan I began to feel shaky.

I felt myself smile a little, as the breeze kissed my face and lifted my hair. 

'Do you click a lot?' I asked after a moment, looking down at Merritt's hand. As soon as I said these words, the clicking ceased and his face froze a little.

'Hmm?' There was something in his face that didn't fit him being nervous. Some flicker of humor, some laughter that couldn't wait to be released. A person who was scared and nervous didn't look like that. Clicking was not his nervous tick.

'For fuck's sake...' 

'What?' He shouted in outburst and I pulled my arm for his grip, turning to walk back towards the hotel as he hurried after me. 'What?'

'You were trying to hypnotize me!' 

'No I wasn't.'

'Then why is Jack watching through the window?' I looked up at the hotel, the faint picture of Jack pressing his face up against the glass meeting my eye. He waved at me as he caught me looking and I gave him the finger. I heard Merritt let out a sigh. 

'He bet me that I couldn't do it so...' He trailed off, looking down at his hands but the smirk still playing on his face.

'Yeah, I bet he did.' I wasn't angry that he'd done it because it clearly hadn't worked. But what if it had? What would he have made me do?

I made my back inside the hotel it a huff, Merritt trailing after me. If anything, that had just showed how much of a big kid Merritt really was. And I could deal with big kids.

The biggest thing he would have made me do would have been to stand on my head or something equally stupid. He wasn't malicious. And even if clicking wasn't his nervous tick, there had been something in his voice when he'd told me he was nervous that made me know that that feeling hadn't been faked.

Maybe there was at least one thing we had in common...?


	31. 30

We spent the rest of the day going over the plan - again - but during our dinner break (dinner was takeout) I helped Merritt go through all of the profiles of the suspects and told him some of the ways that I found helpful in learning my lines. It helped that I'd been learning lines all of my life so it came pretty naturally to me now but I was sure the tricks I used could still be useful. And they seemed to be because in the space of half an hour, Merritt was rattling off facts as though they'd been in his head all along.

I noticed the others giving us slightly shocked looks when we were sat on the couch together but I didn't care - I was helping him out because I knew that I genuinely could. And even though he'd 'tried' to hypnotize me - Jack had claimed no part in the whole operation when I'd returned to the room - it turned out that he could be hilarious when he wasn't in a bad mood or was being an ass. 

So that was nice. And totally worth the irked look on Atlas' face. What did he have a problem with now?

The horsemen also spent some of the going over some tricks and practicing the skills that they might need - throwing cards, some cards tricks and a whole host of other things that I couldn't really understand. It basically meant that I got several free magic shows. Or, as it went most of the time, I was dragged to sit in front of them and watch the trick to see if I could figure out how it had been done. I had to tell them over and over and over again that I had absolutely no idea.

I had no idea where the card had gone or why Lula's nose was still bleeding and after a while I was beginning to think that they'd come up with this whole thing just as way to make myself look stupid and blank in front of them as I was forced to admit that I had no idea what was going on. 

It was kind of fun, though. Because, while I'd never openly admit it to the horsemen because I knew I'd get ridiculed and never, ever hear the end of it, I used to be sort of obsessed with magic when I was a teenager. I blamed it on my Dad's incessant tricks that he'd show to me and Ben before we went to school and then we'd get another showing before we went to bed. It had only ever been small tricks: simple card tricks and pulling coins from our ears but we'd loved it all the same.

And while that world had been more than a decade ago and I'd matured to the level where I didn't believe in that anymore and knew that there had been a logical explanation behind everything that he'd done , it didn't hurt to be nostalgic every once in a while. The horsemen's tricks were a world away from my Dad's though - they were sophisticated and sleek and complex and it was frustrating me to no end that I couldn't figure it out.

I also had to admit that when Atlas got into his performing mode - when he suddenly became all cocky and charming - it was kind of a turn on.

Who was I kidding? It was a massive turn on. 

The whole afternoon of watching them argue among themselves about who had the better trick and teasing each other when one of them made the slightest of errors made me start to think in even more detail about what was going to go down on Wednesday night.

Atlas might be playing a role right now, in making himself seem more suave and sophisticated, but that was exactly the same as to what I would be doing on Wednesday. The difference was that all I needed to do was remember a few names and facts and flirt a bit and not make a fool out of myself. The horsemen on the other might have some actual magic to do if everything went pear-shaped and threw up some unforeseen challenges. I didn't have to actually do anything.

Merritt had people that he might have to hypnotize, Lula had people to distract with whatever gory and bloody show she'd come up with and Jack and Atlas had cards to fling at people, or at least Jack did. This seemed to be one discipline where Jack was just marginally better at it than Atlas was. 

From what I'd seen, Atlas had been practicing for most of the day to iron out any of the errors that he made and this was both endearing and annoying because he kept getting frustrated with himself whenever he made a tiny error. I'd permanently engraved the way he screwed his face up in irritation into my mind. It was adorable.

Anyway...

It was now the evening and everyone had split up and gone their separate ways after spending the whole day stuck inside one room together. I'd claimed the window seat in the boys room that looked out onto the crossroad in front of the hotel with my art history book on my lap. I kept switching between reading and staring out of the windows at the people down below, distracting myself on purpose. People spotting was another one of my favourite things to do and I was sat next to one of the biggest windows that I'd ever come across so I couldn't pass the opportunity up. 

The view wasn't anything special, there were no rolling hills of fields filled with lavender or anything else that Claude had told me there might be but I didn't mind. There was something just as interesting about the shop fronts and the other hotels clustered around the streets than there was about the countryside. Not that I'd seen much countryside that wasn't on the side of a freeway.

That didn't stop me from running my eyes over every inch of the streets, trying to soak up everything that I could. The sights, the sounds, the smells - I'd even committed the interior of my hotel room to memory, the cushions, the rugs, so to keep everything plastered into my mind for longer. I wanted to stay in this perfect, secluded little bubble for the rest of my life. Everything seemed perfect here, the glimmering of the street lights in the dark, the people, the...

My eyes had caught a figure who had been leaning against the hotel opposite from ours. I looked again and he was gone, disappearing into the darkness where there were no street lights to illuminate the path. I must be more tired then I'd realized. All this reading - or not reading if I was being completely honest - must be beginning to tire out my eyes to the point where I was now seeing people who weren't even there.

But then the figure reappeared from an alley, having walked around the block to the spot where he now leisurely leaned against the wall in the same exact pose he had before. He had something clutched in his hand; I presumed it was his cell. One of the travel guides on the plane had told me Paris had lots of pick-pocketers. Was he a pick-pocket? Was I in a real-life Oliver! reenactment?

His eyes were focused on the hotel and as they slid across the wall they fixed onto me. I didn't draw mine away, carefully taking in his appearance and the nausea growing in my stomach. The casual, lazy, inconspicuous pose was something that I was all too familiar with. It was the way Aaru trained his people to blend into crowds, to hide in plain sight.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Was he one of his? I leaned closer, trying to look casual as though I was watching for someone coming down the street, as though I was waiting for Atlas to return and engage in a passionate tryst with me. Or whatever...

I looked at him again, taking in every tiny detail of him. He looked like one of Aaru's men, acted in the way that they would, but I didn't know him. I didn't think I did, anyway. My heart was pumping so fast I was having trouble thinking straight. Did I know him? I couldn't remember having seen him before.

He pushed off the wall after a moment and turned his back on me, disappearing back down the darkened alley only this time he didn't reappear again. I felt like I'd just run a marathon, judging from the rapidness of my breathing.

I couldn't ignore that. I might have been avoiding some of the strange feelings that I'd been getting when I'd been walking around but there was no way in hell I could ignore that. He'd been watching me, watching us, watching - 

A playing card suddenly fluttered into my lap and I whipped around to see Atlas stood poised, a pack of cards in his hand. Even he wouldn't go that far off; he'd done it to get my attention. Had he been talking to me? I didn't think so. 

I flung the card back at him, turning my attention to the book in my lap but I realized my hands were shaking slightly. I wasn't going to say anything, not before I knew more about what was going on. They were putting everything on the line for this, I couldn't distract them with things that weren't even problems.

I hoped this wouldn't be a problem. There didn't need to be something else for me to freak out about.


	32. 31

As it turned out, I ended up not sleeping much that night but spent most of my time in bed tossing and turning and trying to figure out in my mind what I was going to do. And by the time the sunlight was faintly streaming through the window, I still didn't have a clear answer. I'd been so sure that going to Paris would remove this threat from my mind but clearly it hadn't. It seem to matter where I went, the problem would just follow me wherever I went.

I needed to be certain. I needed to be absolutely certain that somebody - or some people, I couldn't be sure it was just one man - really were following me, or the horsemen, and it wasn't just my heightened sense of paranoia playing tricks on me and making me hallucinate, brought on from the stress of worrying about tomorrow night. 

I knew that I'd seen the man. He'd been real. But maybe he'd just been waiting for a friend? What definite proof did I have that he'd been following me or the horsemen in particular?

I didn't. And I needed to get some, one way or another.

I then needed to figure out who they were and if it turned out there was a group of people following me or the horsemen, I was willing to bet my left arm that they had a connection with Aaru and his gang. Because it had to be. Aaru was that much of a psychopath that following me across the world wasn't too much of a stretch when it was him we were talking about.

I then needed to figure out how the hell Aaru had friends in another country. He wasn't the kind of person who other people were drawn to with the honest intention of making friends. Joining the drug trade, yes. Buying a cartload of guns, yes. But not making friends. Not friends who weren't scared shitless of him, anyway.

When I'd been with him and had been introduced to the inner workings of his gang, I'd never once got the impression that his enterprise had stretched any further than New York. But, the more I thought about it as I lay in bed, watching the clock slowly tick by and listening to the faint mumbles coming from Lula's bed, I knew it couldn't completely be out of the question. 

He had some powerful business allies in the business owners and dock workers and he had a seemingly endless supply of money and, after all that, was one of the smartest, most forward-thinking people that I'd ever met, even if he was a mad man. 

And even with all of those things combined, I still didn't know if he had the resources to have stretched his enterprise all the way to Paris. But he had, if what I suspected was anything to go off. I might not quite understand how he'd done it but he had. 

That thought alone was quite terrifying. He was no longer a regular mob-boss skulking around the back allies of Washington Heights.

Why the hell would Aaru follow me all this way? That was another thing I couldn't get my head around. If he wanted to kill me then surely it would be better, and make more sense, to wait for me to come back to Washington Heights instead of wasting money contacting his associates in Paris? 

So it couldn't be about that. It had to be about something else and the only dramatic change in my schedule from Washington Heights to Paris was tomorrow evening, the event at the Louvre. He must have somehow got word that I was helping the horsemen, or something. Even when you were being discrete, there were eyes everywhere back home and nothing ever went unreported, not really.

I frustratedly rolled onto my side, clenching my eyes shut. None of it made any sense. Why would Aaru be interested in an event at the Louvre? He didn't give a shit about art. So that meant he was either doing it to impress his associates that were drowning in money and he was hoping to get his grubby little hands on some of it or there was something more sinister going on that nobody knew anything about, not even the horsemen and there weeks of planning.

And if there was, I needed to find out what it was.  
***  
I spent the morning inside my hotel room and while I was itching to go outside, I forced myself to my laptop to do some more research on the 5 suspects. There had to be something else that was drawing Aaru to Paris, if he really was here at all. 

Or, I was trying to do some research at least because beside some very basic pages and a couple of social media accounts, there didn't seem to be much information out about them and what was out there didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know. Names and occupations was as far as it went. And I knew from my time with Aaru that sometimes a lack of information could sometimes be just as incriminating and suspicious as blood on the floor.

But, like everything, there was a large chance that I was simply reading too far into it. I seemed to do a lot of that nowadays. It was all I ever did, apparently.

After lunch I left the horsemen to practice their tricks because I knew they would be at it for a while and I wouldn't have to worry about bumping into any of them outside. 

I needed to suss out what the fuck was going on and I couldn't do that if I had to babysit at the same time. 

The day was much like the previous days that we'd been here: breezy and warm and pleasant. I almost considered turning back and leaving my coat in my room but I didn't. The weather could change in an instant and I didn't want to have to abort my mission earlier than necessary just because I was cold.

I looked out towards the crossroads, brushing the hair from my eyes as the wind lifted it over my shoulder, just as I'd done last night. The figure wasn't there, nor had I expected him to be. If he was good, he would have seen me leave my room and know that I was making my way down.

I slowly started walking along the sidewalk towards the collection of bakeries and patisseries, my steps leisurely and casual. I'd deliberately left my hair down because anyone here on Aaru's orders would pick me out immediately but I didn't want to make things too difficult for them. I was nice before I turned mean.

It also helped me, walking slowly, as it gave me ample time to take in everything around me. Much like the other day, I had no real idea of where I was going but that didn't matter. I was going to walk until I noticed something. And if I was walking until lunch, then I really had turned into a paranoid mess.

I stopped to buy a newspaper from a street vendor, casually checking over both of my shoulders as I rooted around in my purse for some change. No one was following in front or behind me. So far. 

I thanked the vendor and tucked the newspaper under my arm, before turning to cross the road, my eyes scanning the scene.

There.

Sat a little down the street was a man stretching out on a bench, his cell in his hand and his hat low over his eyes. Further down the street, there was another man checking his watch as he leaned against a lamppost. They both had the typical build and casual style that Aaru preached to his members. Even if I couldn't specifically identify them. That annoyed me.

I walked down the street a little, casting my eyes over the little bakeries, conscious of checking the reflections in the shop windows. I halted for a moment before bending down to tie my shoelace. I had to give them time to catch up a little.

There was at least one man now behind me, presumably the man from the bench. There was probably more - in fact there was definitely more because as I rose up from the ground and shielded my eyes with my hand from the sun as I gazed around, I picked up 3 men from across the street. 

That made 4. The man leaning against the lamppost made 5. And the man who'd just climbed out of the cab made 6. 6 people who I thought were following me, who I knew were following me.

I didn't know any of them but, then again, Aaru probably wouldn't send people he knew I'd recognize after me. That would make it too obvious, too easy for me to pull them out.

Because this time, they were following me for a reason. They weren't just following me to scare me like his people usually were, although they were doing that as well. 

He had a goal in mind this time. And that made the whole thing even more terrifying.

\- Things are hotting up! Any thoughts?


	33. 32

It was a few hours later before I was walking back down the hotel corridor towards the boys' hotel room. My cell was secured in my pocket where it had been buzzing almost consistently for the last hour. I'd ignored all the texts and the calls and the left messages. I wasn't sure if my fingers would be able to type anything coherently anyway.

I needed to settle down. I was feeling the same frenzied, on-edge feeling that I always felt whenever I did something like that. As though I wasn't in control of the situation or how I'd react to it which made no reasonable sense because I was clearly in charge of the situation because I'd caused it.

I didn't pause for so much as a second as I approached the boys' room, simply pushing the door open and stepping inside. The horsemen were clustered around the lounge area, looking as though they'd been practicing their tricks some time ago - and were still supposed to be - but had found themselves getting distracted by something and had got lost somewhere down that rabbit hole.

Me. I supposed I was the distraction.

As soon as I entered the room, their voices died. I could have heard a pin drop if I'd have been listening out for one. I turned to close the door, checking one more time that there was no one suspicious lurking in the corridor. I knew that no one of them were still on my tail but it didn't hurt to be careful.

'You weren't wearing that this morning.' Jack said, sitting up pin-straight on the couch. I didn't speak, allowing myself to relax as I shrugged off my coat. I pulled the sleeves through the material to reverse it back to the way it was supposed to be worn before hanging it over the back of one of the dining chairs. I then pulled my beanie off my head, letting my hair fall down and ran my hand through it, trying to brush out the knots. 

It was exactly what I'd worn this morning to go out, just with some subtle...adjustments.

'Et voila.' 

'Oh.' Jack answered, his brows narrowing. I could see the questions practically dripping from their tongues - why I'd changed my appearance, where I'd been for 3 hours, why I hadn't replied to their messages - and felt the wave of tiredness pressing down on me again.

I was going to have to give them something, though. I knew there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to brush this one so neatly under the carpet and not compromise everything that we'd already built.

'If you don't want someone to see you following them, turn into someone they're not looking for. They were all looking for someone with long, brown hair and a black coat, not a girl in a gray coat and a purple beanie.'

I looked up at Dylan and saw him freeze, realization seeming to dawn on his face. He knew who I was talking about. I could see the cogs in his mind beginning to click together.

'Who didn't you want to see you? Where've you been?' Merritt asked from the couch, but I didn't reply. I didn't need to. I could see from Atlas' face that he was beginning to get it, as well. It seemed my problems were really so obvious.

'Oh shit.' Dylan breathed, looking towards me with wide eyes. 'We need to move - ' He strode towards the dining table that was covered with the blueprints and started pushing them into a pile.

'No we don't - ' I said firmly, my stern voice stopping him in his tracks. I took a deep breath, looking over to the couch where Atlas was whispering something to the others. 'He's not going to do anything for a while.' 

'And how do you know that?' Dylan asked, Ben's words about Dylan having to keep me safe ringing in my ear, just as I was sure they were ringing in Dylan's. 

'Because I reminded him of what I'll do if he does.' A look of confusion passed over his face as the whispering from the couch suddenly got louder. 

'Can somebody please explain to me what the hell is going on because I have no clue?' Lula shouted, drawing my eyes over to her as I flexed my hands. I'd been gripping them so tightly inside my coat pockets they'd began to go a little numb.

'We're being watched, or at least we were - ' I said slowly, watching Dylan's expression. 

'By who?'

'Aaru's gang.' 

'And why the fuck are they in Paris?' 

'He really is obsessed with you, isn't he?' Jack said slowly as I tore my eyes away from Dylan. The longer I looked at him, the longer I thought about what Ben and Claude would say if I told them what was going on, the closer I felt to bursting into tears. 

I shook my head slowly , watching Jack look even more confused and dropping my gaze once Atlas locked eyes with me, his dark eyes boring into mine. 'For once, I don't think he's doing this for me. At least not entirely. He's interested in what you're doing and that means there's got to be more to it than just a painting.' I could hear my voice breaking. At least when it was about me, there wasn't a chance of anyone else getting hurt.

But this, this was worse. This time he wasn't going to care who got in the way.

'You okay?' 

'I'm fine.' 

'Then why do you look like you're about to cry?' Lula asked, a sympathetic smile on her face as I straightened out the fabric of my skirt. I didn't respond, the tears having formed in my eyes without me even realizing it. 

'Come here - ' I looked up to see Dylan approach me, wrapping his arms around my torso and rest his head on top of mine. I started for a moment before settling into his arms, the warmth and musky scent seeping into my skin. 'You're fine, you're safe. I'm not going to let you get hurt. Ben will kill me otherwise - ' He said this jokingly but instead of laughing, I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I pried myself out of his arms.

I wiped my eyes with my fingers, slightly turning away from the others. It probably didn't even matter, they knew I was crying. But I wanted to try and keep one scrap of my pride, at least. God Aaru was such a dick. I hated him. It was funny how much I hated him. 

'Don't tell Ben about it, please.' I said, looking up at Dylan with pleading eyes. 'I don't need to worry him.'

'You might feel better if he were here.' I shrugged and folded my arms, the shadow of a smirk growing on my face. I saw Dylan narrow his eyes. 'Hang on a minute, what did you mean that he'll keep away?' 

'What the hell did you do?' Merritt asked. I shrugged again, pausing slightly before speaking. But they already all thought I was crazy, so all my words would really do would back up their theory. I ran a hand through my tangled hair.

'I set his car on fire.' 

'Excuse me?' Merritt gawked, his eyes wide. 

'I was in a gang. I set people's cars on fire all the time.' I said nonchalantly. Dylan didn't speak. I didn't want to look at him. He would probably be wearing the same expression Ben wore when he saw me do something that he disapproved of. 

'Was anyone in the car?' I shot Atlas a hard glare. 

'No, I'm not a murderer.' I said bitterly, flexing my fingers as though I could still feel the heat licking my fingers from the match that I'd lit. 

'Just an arsonist, then.' 

'I do not need any of your bullshit right now.' I'd let his men follow me for as long as I could bare it, before disappearing into a shop and losing them in the fray of people. I'd then spent the next 2 hours discretely trailing them until they'd led me into a side street. One of the men had retrieved a gun from the glove box of the car before they'd split up again. I'd then lit the match.

Aaru would know it had been me by now. He'd know that I wasn't taking any of his crap. And as much as admitting it felt toxic, doing something that had become so natural for me after months of abstinence almost felt good. Especially as I knew who the intended target was.

Merritt still looked shocked and I couldn't read Atlas solid brooding face but Jack and Lula were both smiling slightly, albeit in a way that made me feel like the child who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. 'What?' I sniffed, my voice sounding choked up. Not again...

'Is this a group hug moment?' 

'No, Margot's pretty sensitive to hugs.' Dylan said before I could speak, his voice light and joking. I looked over at him and while his face was stern, his eyes were bright and sparkling. 

'If enough people hug me, there's a chance I'll burst into tears.' I admitted with a shrug, smirking but feeling a wave of warmth float over me. They didn't hate me, despite what I'd done, despite not answering their calls. 

They didn't hate me. 

'That sounds like a challenge.' Jack said with a grin and I rolled my eyes at him. 

'How about we concentrate on trying to figure out why a Washington Heights gang leader is interested in a painting that's being unveiled at the Louvre, Paris after having shown no affinity for fine art in the last 10 years? Oh, and said unveiling is happening in 24 hours time, by the way.' 

'On it.' Jack burst out of his seat, dragging Lula up with him, and went over to Dylan, immediately starting to talk in low voices.

'You set a car on fire.' Atlas' voice was low and snarky, but there was an element of surprise that almost made me feel a little bit proud. He got to his feet, his hands in his pockets.

'Yes. And?'

'I've got some questions about that. I - ' Questions I was shocked no one else had deemed to ask, but anyway. I rolled my eyes at him as he raised an eyebrow at me.

'All you've done so far is flick cards around and I've committed arson. You're helping me on this one.' I cut him off and held his gaze, confounded at the humour in my voice. I didn't think I'd be making a joke about this so soon. But was Atlas going to leave it? He didn't seem to have a very good track record with being tactful and leaving conversations half-finished.

He shrugged, running a hand through his hair and my eyes snagged on his fingers as they tugged through a knot. God, I loved his hair. And his fingers. That did sound a bit creepy.

'Yes, ma'am.'


	34. 33

A few hours later it was clear that the horsemen's attempts to re-start their practicing after I'd barged in had been thrown to the wind and had abandoned practicing in favour of simply relaxing in the room. 

At least, that was what I presumed they were supposed to be doing. They weren't executing it very well, however. 

The room was stifling in an awkward, deafening silence as everyone tried very hard not to make eye contact with each other. I was sat in my usual armchair, half-watching the crime show that was showing on the TV and half-watching everybody else. It was nice to know that even the best in the business still got stage-fright before a big show.

I adjusted my position slightly, picking at my nails as I looked over at the clock. In the last 2 hours since I'd come back - and hadn't been shot in the head, meaning my threat to Aaru had apparently worked - I'd felt the mood in the room change slightly. The horsemen had suddenly started treating me a little...differently. And I couldn't really put my finger on it. It was almost as though they were wary of me, now that they'd learned in a past life I'd had an affinity for setting cars on fire.

And now everyone was sat in silence, pretending that they weren't all secretly making eye contact when I wasn't looking and shooting glances in my direction. This wasn't something I couldn't get on board with - it made me feel uncomfortable and awkward and slightly irritated. I'd spilled part of my soul out to them, revealed something about the past I'd swore I'd never tell, and they were repaying me by treating me like an outsider.

'What?' I couldn't take it anymore, the silence, the probing glares. 

'What d'you mean?' Merritt asked, sitting up straighter in his seat and clearing his throat. Honestly. 

'You all keep staring at me. Knock it off.' 

'Maybe it's you who keep staring at us?' 

'Or maybe it's because we all discovered that you were a member of a gang?' Atlas finished sarcastically as I pushed myself into a sitting position and raised my eyebrow in his direction. He didn't reply, simply shot his fellow horsemen a long glance.

'I'm trying to read this.' Dylan said dryly, gesturing to the book that was in his hands. I angled my head trying to catch the title but he moved positions so I couldn't see. Was he embarrassed or something? Obviously not if he was reading the book in public but I knew there were still hidden depths to even Dylan.

'Just drop it. I don't want to deal with your stupid questions right now.' 

'Maybe you should - ' Jack murmured quietly, almost too quiet for me to pick out his words. I was picking at my jumper now, conscious of the way my face was heating up. 'Maybe you should talk about it.' 

Because, so far, all I'd done was storm in, reveal that I'd set a car on fire and not given much of an explanation as to why. And I probably did owe them more of an explanation but there was a part of me, the part that liked building up walls between people and relished the security that those walls brought, that didn't want to say a word.

I met Dylan's eyes as he peered over the top of his book, and they were gentle and kind. He didn't say anything, just continued to look at me. I knew that anything I said would be on my own terms - Dylan wasn't having any part in whether I told them something or not. It was all down to me. 

I opened my mouth before swiftly closing it again. I didn't even really know where to start in explaining the whole thing. Everything just blended together in my head to create a picture of the last 3 years - a messy, complicated picture. Nothing really stood out any more. There was no real key event. Everything had been painful and had been another step for me in destroying myself.

I took a breath and bit my lip, the atmosphere in the room seeming to change as I did so. 

'It started just like any other relationship. I quickly fell in love with him. Madly. I was madly in love with him.' The words didn't feel like my words; I felt disconnected from them as I spoke. 'And then he started drawing me in, asking if I could just help out with something which turned out to be a drug trade, could I keep a look out for police. And I did it all because I loved him. I wanted to make him happy. I don't think I even realized what I was doing half the time.'

I paused for a moment, letting my voice catch up with my thoughts that were hurtling on ahead. My hands were getting clammy and I felt like shrinking under the gaze of the horsemen. But I wanted to do this; I wanted to tell somebody what had happened.

'After a while, it became apparent to everyone other than myself that he didn't love me but he loved how easy I was to manipulate since I was still grieving from the death of my mom.' My voice choked a little but I pushed on. 'I was drowning in it all. He had me running drugs operations, stealing, breaking and entering, blackmailing.'

I thought that the reason I was so defensive about not telling people about my past was because I was terrified about actually telling the truth - admitting that I'd been involved in criminal activity and had effectively been a part of a drug dealing gang - but the words were now freely flowing out of my mouth, without much pushing. 

'And then he - ' No. Whatever limit my mind had decided on, that was going to cross it. Something was squeezing tightly inside of my stomach. I didn't need to tell them everything; I didn't need to tell them anything that I was uncomfortable with, that made me feel physically uncomfortable to even think about. 

'How did you get out?' Atlas asked quietly and I smirked, looking down at my hands.

'You don't ever get out.' I slowly, swallowing the lump in my throat. 'The only way you get out is when you die.' 

'How did you - ' I knew what he meant. How had I managed to convince myself that I had escaped, even when everything around me had been reminding me that I really hadn't. 

'I can't even remember what was going on, not really. Some drug deal that turned violent and some homeless people got caught in the crossfire. A little girl, she can't have been more than 10. I can still hear her mom screaming, crying - ' It was an image that haunted me for months, keeping me from sleeping. Even now, I sometimes woke up with her screams echoing around my head.

'She was shot, died instantly. Just crumpled to the floor right there. And that was when I finally snapped out of it. When I finally asked myself, after months and months of being completely unreachable to Ben and even to Claude, just what the fuck I was doing. That night I packed my stuff and moved back to the ballroom. And every night for two months, there was some shady figure stood at the door with a gun in their hands trying to get me back.' 

That's why it was ridiculous to think that you ever got out. You might be able to get out physically, but there was no way that you'd ever be able to forget what you'd done. They wouldn't let you forget it - the way they'd appear at your front door. There was no way that the memories would ever let you forget, either.

'That was when we started locking the doors. Not that it did anything, they just started following me in the street instead when I had to go shopping. They never spoke to me, just followed me, watching. Reminding me that I'd never be able to get out. That Aaru would always see me as some kind of possession, some kind of asset. I nearly snapped a couple of times - ' 

Those times had been the worst. The times when Ben had had to physically restrain me from going outside because he knew that I'd run straight back into his arms and he'd have to drag me back out again. 

'You'd go back?' Merritt asked and I nodded without hesitation. 

'If I went back, Ben and Claude would be safe for the rest of their lives.' 

'And you'd end up dead in the gutter.' Atlas muttered and I nodded. He wasn't wrong. He got it, apparently. He understood. 

'One night when we were coming back from the movies, they cornered us and turned a knife on Claude.' The memory was still as fresh in my head as it would be if it had happened yesterday. I could still feel the coldness biting at my skin, the fear tangible in the air. 'Threatened to cut her throat unless I came back. I shot the guy. So I think that was as good as saying that I wasn't going to go back without a fight. But that was a year ago, and the guy's still trying.' 

'Someone needs to learn to let go.' Merritt joked, as though I hadn't just admitted to shooting someone. I rolled my eyes and shrugged because yes, he really did need to learn to let go. As well as a whole litany of other things that I didn't have the energy to go into. Like becoming a decent person. 

'That's why I'm so paranoid and anxious all the time.' I continued. 'I'm used to being followed everywhere that I go.'

'What? I haven't seen that - ' Lula said sincerely and I had to double check that she wasn't actually being sarcastic. The others shook their heads too but there was a part of me that knew one of them must have spotted something. Atlas, the one who I'd labelled in my head as annoyingly perceptive, had to have seen something. He just hadn't voiced it.

But again, I'd just told them how I wasn't completely strong and unwavering all of the time - something that usually made me feel clammy and uncomfortable and as though I was baring too much of myself - and they hadn't even bat an eyelid. If anything, they'd dried to deny it. They hadn't said that I was failing at being a person or that I needed to keep my feelings under control or that I needed to get a grip which was what others had said to me when they were trying to be the most unhelpful that they possibly could.

'I've learned to hide it.' I said. 'But that's why I always think and act like someone is following me. Because, most of the time, someone is.' 

\- Some more background to Margot's character! Any thoughts?


	35. 34

Later that evening, after we'd gone through the plan again another dozen times to make sure that even in the heat of the moment there was no way we could possibly forget a single detail, I needed to get out of the room. I felt as though I was being stifled by everyone's thoughts that they weren't sharing and while I knew none of them would be necessarily cruel, just the knowledge that my actions might be on everyone's minds was enough to make me want some alone time.

Having said that, I wasn't about the leave the hotel alone at night. I might be good at setting cars on fire and have a whole host of unutilized skills but I wasn't stupid - so that was how I found myself on the roof/balcony of the hotel because it seemed that when I wanted to get away from everything around me I generally headed up.

I'd been doing it since I was little and it would drive my parents mad; I'd give them both a heart attack as they both ran around trying to find me and I'd happily be sat on the top of the fire escape, my legs dangling off the side as I stared over at the view. 

I guessed it was the sense of something familiar that I was craving. 

It was cold but I didn't really mind; I had a large, intricately patterned scarf slung around my shoulders to fight off most of the chill as I pressed my back against the small brick structure that was in the center of the roof, that probably housed the electrics or something. 

Even though the sensation of sitting on a high up place in the evening when the sky was turning dark was nothing new to me, the whole atmosphere felt different. It was different to back home - it was quieter, more peaceful and less manic. But there was also a sense of unease because I didn't know the source of every single sound; I couldn't recognize every person that I could see down on the street just from their gait. And that unfamiliarity was disturbing.

I pulled the scarf tighter around myself, reprimanding myself for not changing out of my dress and into a jumper before I came up here. I usually wore dresses because they were loose and non-constricting but I wasn't against wearing loose trousers and a shirt if I had to. I wasn't exactly cut out for cold weather.

Was it sad that I'd rather be at home right now? That I'd rather be dealing with all the shit that came with that and be with Ben and Claude than be here?

At least I could feel less guilty about wanting to go back to place where a gang leader was out to get me because he was out to get me here, too. The only thing that wasn't here was Ben and Claude. And my bed, but I was slowly getting over that on the account that my bed was probably still swimming in water.

I looked up as the door leading to the roof suddenly opened. It was Atlas, shivering slightly in his thin-knit jumper. His eyes instantly locked onto me and I could read the surprise in his face. Obviously he hadn't thought that I would be sat on the roof. I was all for surprising people.

'Dylan wanted to know where you were.' He said by way of explanation as he let the door shut behind him.

'You could have just messaged me, instead of sending out a search party.'

'We did.' I pulled my cell out of my pocket and, sure enough, there were 3 unread texts. I'd been to wrapped up in my thoughts to even notice.

'Oh. Sorry.' I was slightly confused as to why Atlas was edging towards me rather than turning on his heel and walking straight back down the stairs to inform Dylan that the search party could be called off. Instead, he came over and sat next to me. I could hear his soft breathing next to me as I stared out over the rooftops. 

There was so an ulterior motive to this conversation.

'He's scared that I'm going to do something else, isn't he?' I said slowly, as the pieces began to fit together. 'Something reckless. Because I'm so unstable.' I had just set a car on fire so it was a reasonable assumption to make for someone who didn't know me.

But he didn't know me, not really.

'I don't think you're unstable.' Atlas said and I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

'Yes, you do. That's what people always think of me and I suppose they're right in a way.' I was probably less unstable and more unpredictable but the point still remained. If Atlas didn't think I was at least a tad unpredictable then he was lying to himself. 'I'm not going to do anything, though, because believe it or not I don't actually have a death wish.'

'You sure about that?' He replied with a smirk and I smiled. 'Because what I've seen so far - '

'You mean when I physically had to restrain myself from slapping you when we first met?' 

'No, that just showed that you're a bad judge of character.'

'You're so cocky - ' I murmured into the air, my mouth curving into a smirk. He just was. He was also insanely smart and that combination should have sent me running for the trees. But, for some reason, the way those traits had solidified in Atlas did nothing but attract me more to him. I couldn't even explain it but it just did. 

That and his insanely floofy hair. 

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he surveyed the view - the view that was much more impressive than anything my corner of Washington Heights could ever come up with. Or maybe it was just that I knew every inch of that view, had seen every scrap of it a thousand times. Here, there were new things for my eyes to rest on. 

I focused on his profile for a moment: his enviably long, dark lashes, the slope of his nose, the pallor of his skin. His brief moment caught my attention and I focused down on his hands that were resting on top of his knees - pinned between his fingers was a playing card. It seemed that he really did carry them everywhere.

'Is it too late for me to say that I'm sorry for dissing your ballroom?' I had not expected to hear these words and I considered them for a moment. 'I'd been trapped in a car with the others all day and just wanted some time to myself - '

'Yes, it's too late to say you're sorry.' I said, cutting him off and he rolled his eyes. 'But apparently the scenery is calming me down so I guess I can let you off just this once.'

He didn't say anything, though his mouth flickered in response before he thought better of it. My eyes fixed onto his hands again that were slowly over the tops of his knees, the playing card still clasped between two of his fingers.

Why was I so obsessed with his hands? It wasn't something I'd particularly noticed about anyone before but there was just something about them which had me hooked.

'Sharing a bed with you wasn't so bad, I suppose.' I grumbled faintly and I saw him smirk as I fiddled with my scarf.

'Oh really?' 

'You still snore. And hog the covers.' 

'I do not - ' 

'But I guess it was alright.' If he was thinking anything particularly snarky - and I felt sure that he was - he didn't say it. I didn't know why I was even still talking to him, or why he was even still here. Maybe he appreciated the views just as much as I did.

And maybe some small part of me was beginning to crack a little and I just really wanted to talk to someone, anyone. 

'Don't laugh at me?' I turned to face him and saw the confusion cross his face.

'What?'

'If I tell you something, you have to promise not to laugh at me.' 

'Depends what you're going to tell me; I can't promise anything - ' 

'You're so annoying.' I gasped, shaking my head as I looked down at the floor. I could feel his eyes focused on my face and I let out a sigh. I couldn't believe I was going to tell him this. I would seriously regret it in a couple of hours.

'I collect decks of cards.' 

'Really?' His voice sounded so steady, so normal, that he must have either misheard me or being sarcastic. 

'Yeah.' I watched him bite his lip and I huffed, turning away. 

'I'm not laughing at you!' He laughed and I slowly looked up to meet his eye. He wasn't, not really. 'It's cool. Really cool. How did that start?'

'Dad used to do magic tricks for us when we were little, as well as singing and dancing and everything else. Card tricks were just one of his things and I just got obsessed with them. So I started collecting them. He taught me a couple of things - ' 

'You can do card tricks?' I shook my head.

'Not anymore. It's been a long time. And I don't go for that kind of stuff anymore.' It was clear what 'that kind of stuff' was as it hung in the silent air between us. 

Magic, which was kind of ironic considering just what I was doing on this trip and just who I was with. But if Atlas had some ready-made rant memorized in his head that he always whipped out on the non-believers he didn't say it. He didn't say any of the cocky dribble that I thought he was going to.

'I could teach you sometime if you wanted. If we get through tomorrow without incident, that is.' The prospect of being able to reproduce some of the tricks Dad had delighted me with as a child made my stomach start to leap. Really? He'd actually do that?

So maybe he was slightly less of an ass. Just slightly.

'Of course we're going to get through tomorrow.' I said, with a confidence I was trying very hard to force myself to believe. 'I'm with the greatest magicians in the world. Not even a drug lord with a seriously inflated ego is going to get in our way.' 

\- A tender moment between Margot and Atlas, at last! What do you think is going to happen tomorrow?


	36. 35

I had absolutely no idea how the next day flew by so fast; I felt as though I was in some kind of time warp because I felt sure I'd missed out on a couple of hours somewhere. One moment I was groggily waking up and hearing Lula tell me all about her amazing pancake dream and the next moment Dylan was considering his watch and announcing that we should all start getting ready soon.

The whole thing felt surreal and, if it was possible because my body had been shaking with nerves all day, I started feeling even more jittery. This was worse that the moment before I stepped out onto the stage to perform to an audience; it was a million times worse.

I procrastinated for as long as I possibly could when I was in the shower, spending a long time washing my hair and basking under the warmth of the water. If I could I'd stay under the water for the entire day, that way I'd get out of tis whole thing, but I knew that if I left it too long they'd probably send Lula in to get me. And while I liked Lula, that was pushing it a bit far.

I didn't want to be feeling so nervous. I would have happily swapped the shaky feeling that was brewing in my stomach for the usual confidence I possessed when I stepped out on to stage but it seemed that that wasn't going to happen. I was going to have to face up to my nerves and get control of them. 

I begrudgingly turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, quickly drying off my legs and wrapping one of the fluffy towels around myself. That was something else about this whole trip that I greatly appreciated - the fluffiness of the towels. There was something about hotel-issue towels that I knew I'd never be able to replicate at home. I was seriously considering stuffing one into my suitcase and taking it home with me, that was if we managed to get through the night.

Now I was being just as pessimistic as Atlas had been being last night. I needed to listen to my own words, though I knew that was probably never going to happen. I was with the horsemen; they were arguably the best magicians and performers in the entire world. Everything was going to be absolutely fine.

At least it would be if I ever left the bathroom. I needed to hurry up. I was holding up the queue. 

I pulled open the bathroom door and instantly jolted backwards. For fuck's sake...

Atlas was stood on the other side, clutching a comb in his hand because apparently the room had run out of mirrors. I became deeply aware of how I was currently only being covered by a tiny towel that barely covered my thighs on account of my height and the way my hair was sopping wet, half-dripping down my back and probably resembled something of a bird's nest. Just how I wanted to look when I was around him: flushed and awkward and so glamorous. 

Atlas was just standing there, looking kind of...awed. Even he didn't know how to get out of this awkward situation. Why did our lives involve a constant stream of awkward encounters? Couldn't we just be normal?

'Jack - Jack pushed me - ' He stuttered, gesturing towards where Jack was stood a few feet away, running his hands frustratedly through his hair in front of the mirror. He rolled his eyes.

'I did not.' I sighed, pushing Atlas aside and heading straight for my room. Why everyone had decided to camp out in mine and Lula's room was something I hadn't bothered to ask because at least it meant I got to get dressed in my own room. I passed Lula by the doorway, already dressed in her chef's uniform and fiddling with the hat that rested precariously on her head. I'd spent so long in the shower that everyone else was practically ready.

And as much as I hated to admit it, Atlas looked annoyingly attractive in his all black outfit. I didn't know what it was exactly; all I knew was that I liked it and that I really needed to snap out of it. Crushing on a horsemen wasn't something that I needed on my mind right now and it definitely wasn't something that I needed to tick off my bucket list. 

It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore him, however. And I didn't know what to do to stop it.

***  
45 minutes later, I was stood in front of the floor length-mirror that sat in the corner of the room, my hands on my his, ready to tear my own hair out. I knew there was a reason that I didn't dress up fancy on a regular basis and that was because I was both a perfectionist and lacking in self-esteem.

I packed one of my only 'fancy' dresses, as per the horsemen's instructions, but because I didn't make a habit of regularly going to art openings and nor did I have an endless supply of 'fancy' dresses, I had to make do with what I'd had on hand. And now I was wondering whether I should have just gone all out and bought something new because I didn't know whether it would make the cut.

It was my favorite dress that I owned but I knew that that didn't necessarily mean anything. It was navy blue in colour, with an off-the-shoulder neckline and split up the side. I didn't normally wear midi-length dresses but there was just something about this one, and the flattering way that it seemed to cling to my legs that made me love it. It showed off enough of my legs to make me feel...well, sexy...as well as my shoulders which I weirdly regarded as one of my best features.

But, despite all that, there was still a part of me that was telling me I belonged back in Washington Heights rather than the high-life of Paris. I knew that it was stupid - that a dress didn't define where I belonged - but it was one of those moments where I would have really appreciated having Claude beside me. She was always encouraging and positive when those thoughts seemed false in my head or when I didn't have the energy to even voice them.

I bit my lip and met my eyes in the mirror, folding my arms and uncrossing my legs. I was being silly. I'd worn this dress a dozen times before and every time I had, I'd felt as much like a movie star that I'd ever be able to achieve. 

Not that that mattered, because I wasn't even supposed to be playing myself right now. I was playing a role, something I knew that I could do. And I wasn't in character right now because I'd decided that my role for the evening didn't care of what people thought of her. Something I tried to portray but never truly felt.

I took a quick picture of my reflection on my cell and sent it to Claude, knowing that she'd be dying to see what I looked like. I'd given her and Ben a rough idea of what was going on, but nothing enough to incriminate them or make them a target for any of Aaru's people. Because that was something else for me to think about.

I'd left my hair loose after letting it dry naturally because I really didn't have the time to turn it into a sleek up do, something I'd only been able to achieve a handful of times anyway. I'd then added a pair of dangly earrings, the only pair of cream heels that I owned and a dash of red lipstick because it really was bizarre how much a simple task could perk me up and make me feel a whole lot more confident.

But even the red lipstick couldn't completely erase the worries from my mind, especially those about Aaru and his people. I knew that they would be there tonight; I just had a feeling that I couldn't ignore. It was only thing that made sense as to why they'd be here in Paris.

As Ben often put it, my spider senses were tingling. 

I couldn't let myself become completely sidetracked by Aaru, no matter how likely it was he would show up. I needed to keep constant tabs on Ryan, as well as the other suspects, otherwise the whole thing but be for nothing. Ryan was guilty of something - the sparseness of his social media accounts had told me clearly that he was hiding something - and I just had to figure out what it was. Because he definitely wasn't who he said he was.

I had to be on the lookout tonight. They were the rabbits and I was going hunting.

\- Margot's look if you're interested (www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/562105597234398155/)


	37. 36

I knew that I couldn't spend any longer hiding in my room and criticizing myself in the mirror. I'd already re-applied my lipstick 3 times and my hands were beginning to sweat so much that I could barely hold it accurately anymore. I had a performance to do - and it was going to have to be the best of my life. After all the prep that we'd done, I couldn't let something like my action mess everything up.

I grabbed my purse - the only clutch bag that I owned and I was pretty sure I'd had for at least 10 years - and checked my appearance in the mirror one more time before stepping out into the main part of the room.

The others were all crowded around Dylan dressed in the appropriate gear - Jack in security guard uniform that made me wonder where the hell he'd got it from, Lula in her chef's whites, Dylan wearing a shirt and dinner jacket just in case someone started asking him questions, Merritt in a tux and Atlas in his waiters' black shirt and trousers. Seeing them all dressed up made everything feel all the more real and a wall of nerves crashed down against me.

Holy fuck. What was I doing? The horsemen were muttering about some of the finer details of the plan for what must have been the hundredth time in the last 3 days. I flicked my hair over my shoulder and strode towards them, Jack's eyes meeting mine first as he ended the conversation and everyone turned towards me. 

I could cope with lots of people staring at me when I was in character because then the flaws and imperfections weren't mine to be embarrassed or insecure about. When I was Margot on the other hand, I tended to take everything much more seriously and took any negative comments much more closer to heart.

I folded my arms, the textbook gesture for someone getting defensive. I hated how I was so textbook. 

'Go on - ' I said, speaking before they could say anything. 'Get the sarcastic comments out of your systems now.' 

'You look lovely.' Dylan said kindly, a smile on his face that made me blush slightly and roll my eyes at the same time. Some times Dylan was like the annoying neighbor and other times he was the slightly unfamiliar father figure - and I never really knew what type I was going to get.

I looked for something else to say before the silence could unnerve me even more and noticed that Merritt was clutching his signature hat in his hands. Had he taken his hat of specifically when he'd seen me? I didn't know; I'd been more concerned about not tripping over my own feet in my heels.

'You can put the hat back on - ' I said dryly and Merritt shot me a grin as he replaced the hat on his head. 

I looked over at Atlas, surprised that he'd stayed silent and not taken up my offer to face his sarcastic comments. I knew that, deep down, he wasn't really the bitter and jaded character that I'd initially made him out to be but that didn't mean he couldn't still be sarcastic either. 

But Atlas just shrugged, pushing his hands into his pockets as he looked over at me. 'Don't mess up.' I should have expected something like that from him and rolled my eyes at him. 

'You really are a charmer, aren't you?' Lula said sternly before turning back to me and shooting me a wink.

'You look very nice.' 

'Better.' It took me a moment to fully digest this compliment, the fact that J. Daniel Atlas really had just shot me a compliment even if it had been forced out of him. That he might not be a completely emotionally insensitive jackass. 'That wasn't so hard, was it?' 

The way that Lula was able to extract politeness and semi-socially acceptable behavior out of him made me laugh. Dylan might be the Dad of the group, but Lula clearly knew exactly who she was dealing with. 

'You really do look great.' Lula beamed and I unfolded my arms before folding them again. I shrugged off the compliment, cursing myself for not being able to take it better, before Dylan clapped his hands. 

'Lets get back to the plan before everyone gets completely distracted about how great Margot looks.' He said promptly, drawing everyone's attention back to the escape plans and emergency measures that he was running through. I let out a sigh, feeling Atlas stood closely next to me and sure that he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye as I listened to Dylan.

Interspersed between his reminders about our back-up plans were calming words of advice and I realised that these seemed to be angled more at me than anyone else, which was appropriate really. I reminded myself, just as Dylan had just said, that there was no need to panic or worry about anything and if things didn't go exactly according to plan then we could all deal with that. I could deal with that. 

Dylan then looked me straight in the eye, brushing all pretenses that these comments hadn't been about me aside. 'Merritt, Jack and Danny are going to be your closest ports of call if you need anything. And if you do need anything, just ask.' 

'Got it.' I said stiffly. 

'You're not in this alone.' He continued. 'I know you're going to be great.' That was ironic because at the moment I didn't feel like I was going to be great at anything - I felt slightly sick if I was honest.

'The first time we all did a big show we were pissing ourselves - ' Jack interrupted with a grin and I felt myself relax slightly as I let out a deep breath. 'You'll do fine.'

'And if you do see any sign of Aaru or his people, you need to get out of there as soon as you can - '

'What?' Dylan hadn't mentioned this earlier during one of the countless run-throughs of the plan so why was it coming up now? 'No, that'll completely disrupt the plan and ruin everything that we've been preparing!' I wasn't about to go running just because Aaru was around. I hadn't been psyching myself up for days just to forget it all now.

'Yes.' Dylan continued sternly. 'It's too dangerous and I'm not going to let him get his hands on you.'

'I can handle myself.' I couldn't believe that Dylan had shipped me out to Paris under the guise of me helping with their mission and now, when things got too 'dangerous' for him, he was willing to pull the plug on me. No way.

'I know that - ' Dylan said with a sigh, 'but these guys aren't going to be messing around.'

'I'm not going to let him control my life anymore!' I said, exasperated. Why wasn't Dylan getting that? 'He's done that enough.' Dylan ran a hand through his hair and paused for a minute. I looked around at the other horsemen but none of the met my gaze. Had they talked about this beforehand?

'You're vulnerable when they're around. I can see it.' I narrowed my eyes at him, pushing my weight into my right hip as I folded my arms. 

'Really? Because you haven't seen me for a year. You don't know what I'm like.' I held his gaze, my eyes unflinching as he stared back at me. This was my life and he couldn't push me away just because he thought I was in danger. 

Dylan was the first one to pull his eyes away, staring down at the floor as he let out a sigh. 'Fine.' He said through gritted teeth. 'But if things start to get really hairy, then you have to get out of there.' 

'Got it.' It was half a victory but I would take it. At least it meant I wasn't being pushed aside anymore.

'That goes for all of you, too. If things start kicking off, you have to get Margot out of there.' I raised an eyebrow at him. 

'I'm beginning to feel less like a team member and more like I'm being babysat.' I shot back but Dylan didn't reply, simply checked the time on his watch. And while I might not like the feeling of my actions being watched by everyone, at least I knew that some people had my back. 

'We should get going soon.' Dylan murmured and the nerves began to bubble away in my stomach again. I just needed to get to the museum and get this whole thing underway. The waiting beforehand was the worst part - I knew that from years of working in the theatre - and I knew that it wasn't healthy to be running every possible scenario involving Aaru in my head on a loop. 

He was nothing that I couldn't handle. He might have messed me up before, but I was fine now.

***

Less than 20 minutes later, we were heading for the handful of cabs that we'd ordered to take us to the museum. We'd all agreed that it was better to get a car than risk being ambushed on the way there. Having said that, I was unsure as to whether Aaru would come after me tonight anyway, even if we were walking. He clearly had something else on his mind if he could be bothered to come to Paris; I doubted whether he would waste any of that attention on me.

I adjusted the strap of my bag that was falling slightly off my shoulder as we all hurried after Dylan down the hotel corridor. The nerves were still jumping around in my stomach but now that I was actually doing something, rather than pacing around in the hotel room I was definitely feeling better. 

I was still terrified, just not as terrified as I had been before. 

Atlas was walking in-step beside me and I didn't have the capacity to be thinking whether it was a conscious decision or not. All I knew was that focusing on the rhythmical thud of his footsteps was helping to keep my breathing steady. 

'You really do look nice.' He muttered suddenly, turning to look at me and I felt like my legs were going to give way beneath me. 

'Thanks.' His words made me want to blush; I probably was blushing. Oh God, was I blushing? I felt like I was. I was probably grinning like a crazy person even though his words were practically nothing, empty and general. They still felt like something, though, even if he had meant nothing by them. 

'So do you.' I shot back, reminding myself how to speak. 'But then you practically live in suits so you're used to it.' 

'Used to what?' He smirked a little as he quirked his brow. 

Looking hot. But I couldn't say that, even if it was completely true. 

'Looking smart.' 

'Right.' Could he see that I wanted to say a different adjective? That I really wanted to? 

'Hurry up lovebirds!' My head shot up at the sound of Merritt's voice calling us both from up-ahead and this time started blushing for real. He shot us both a wink before turning away. I was actually going to hit him if he carried on winking at the pair of us. 

It seemed that Merritt's words had had an affect on Atlas too, because his footsteps started getting quicker and were no longer walking in time with my own. Maybe it wasn't just me who wanted to hit him?

\- Any thoughts?


	38. 37

We didn't talk much in the car which I was almost glad of, seeing as I didn't know whether I would have been able to form any intelligent or coherent sentences. I'd been sat next to Atlas because we were the last to make it outside on account of our slow walking and he'd been messing with a playing card for the whole ride. 

I was beginning to wonder whether it was more than just a tool he used in his tricks, whether it went much deeper than that. Perhaps he used it as a calming mechanism, something to be used to root himself to reality when he felt himself getting nervous. That would explain why he always seemed to have one on him at all times; I was still running with the theory that he'd had a special pocket made in every one of his suits which was only slightly bigger than a playing card.

I thought back to the evening where I'd told him that I collected decks of cards; I was missing being able to peruse the dark blue hat box that I stored in the top drawer of my dresser that held all the decks of cards that I'd come to own. I should probably show them to him when we went back to Washington Heights, seeing as card tricks were kind of his thing. He'd probably be interested and it would give me something to talk about with him that didn't involve any embarrassment.

That could be the thought I clung onto. The thought that stopped me from completely freaking out.

I was surprised at how calmly I was managing to walk around the museum, the wine glass clutched in my hand. I was keeping to the outskirts of the room, trying to take everything in without giving myself away. We'd only been here for a matter of minutes and I still felt like a fish out of a water.

I looked across towards the door that I'd watched Lula rush through only moments ago when an angry chef had caught her talking with Merritt and started shouting at her in rapid French. Jack had taken up his position by the front doors, his arms clasped behind his back. Merritt was standing across from me, a identical wine glass in his hand that Atlas had passed to him from his silver platter only seconds ago.

I repressed the urge to run my free hand through my hair again. That was something Margot would have done and I wasn't Margot right now; I was Erica Moreau and she wasn't nervous or self-consciously run her hands through her hair. 

Atlas passed by me, balancing the platter of wine glasses precariously on one hand and I winked at him as he passed. Because that was the kind of person Erica was.

The swelling crowd of people was slowly getting bigger as more filed through the doors, all of them wearing evening dress and speaking more languages than I had fingers. I was slowly scanning the crowd for anyone that I recognized, whether that was Ryan or one of the suspects or any of Aaru's people.

No one knew what they were up to; that's what was eating away at me. There had to be a reason for their appearance in Paris and no one knew what that was so there was no way I was going to let Dylan drag me out of the whole operation before I found out the answer to that question.

I was going to find Ryan and the others, stop the painting from being stolen and stop Aaru from doing whatever illegal and immoral money scheme that he'd concocted this time. All without getting killed. Easy.

To do that, however, I'd have to ignore the figure of Atlas moving around the room that I somehow kept being drawn towards. I definitely wasn't seeking him out in the crowd of people because I wanted to check that he was alright and his cover hadn't been blown. And he definitely didn't look the most handsome I'd ever seen him in his suit.

***  
Half an hour later, things were, so far, going pretty smoothly. We had eyes on all 5 of our suspects, Dylan had set up base downstairs with eyes through almost all of the security cameras and there hadn't been any signs of suspicious activity as of yet. Aside from hearing about Lula's mishaps in the kitchen - it seemed the chef was something of an perfectionist - nothing had even started to go downhill and the suspects weren't even moving around too much which made our job of tracking them a whole lot easier.

I was almost reached the stage where I was enjoying the party, with the beautiful music and the grand setting and the sarcastic comments that the horsemen were throwing around through the earpieces we all wore. 

The wine wasn't hurting either. I was on my 2nd glass by now - or it might have even been my 3rd - but it was free and definitely the wine that I'd ever had and so it would have been stupid for me not to take advantage of it. It certainly made a change from the beer that I usually drank. 

I'd avoided talking to anyone for too long so far, preferring to get a full grip of my surroundings. I was also trying to keep up the air of glamour and mystery that I was sure surrounded Erica Moreau constantly like a cloud. I seen a couple of guys throwing looks my way and I'd dutifully ignored them - Erica didn't waste time on airheaded fools. This hadn't seemed to deter their looks but I didn't care - looking was as close as they were going to get. 

'I've noticed you haven't danced with anyone yet?' Merritt appeared next to me, having been slinking his way around the room for the last 20 minutes following his target. If he thought he was being inconspicuous, then I was going to have to tell him otherwise. Or maybe that was just because I was constantly checking up on the horsemen to make sure they were okay.

It was a bit annoying, really. But I seemed to be doing subconsciously.

'You're not being serious,' I murmured, taking a sip of wine before giving him a slight glance.

'Course I am.' He said with a shrug. 'We've got eyes on everyone. You're the best dancer in the room, by a mile.' 

'Standing on the spot and swaying from side to side hardly counts as dancing.' I said, gesturing towards the center of the room where a group of guests were doing exactly that. You didn't need to be able to dance to do that. 

'Now you're just making up excuses - ' Merritt replied pointedly and sighed through gritted teeth. 

'I can't believe I'm doing this.' I muttered, quickly draining my glass and passing it to a nearby waiter. 'Is someone paying you to do this?'

'Nope.' He led me towards the middle of the room, taking my hand in his and pressing his other to the small of my back. I looked over his shoulder towards where Ryan was stood, where he'd been stood ever since he'd passed through security. 'It gives me a good view of the room.' 

'I knew there was an ulterior motive somewhere.' I said with a roll of my eyes, slowly moving my hand to grip his shoulder. I let my muscles relax under Merritt's barely-there touch and allowed him to slowly spin me around to the gentle music echoing from the band in the corner. It was nice; relaxing even. Even if Merritt was smiling at someone with an obnoxious grin, someone stood behind me that I couldn't see.

I made a mental note to see who had been in that vicinity when we turned back round. Aside from guests, the only person I recognized was Atlas, a tray of empty wine glasses on his hand. And he was scowling slightly, his free hand in his pocket.

Why had Merritt been grinning at him like that, goading him almost? And why was Atlas now so frustrated?

'You don't need to wind him up.' I said carefully, meeting Merritt's gaze and watching him frown. 

'Why not? It's funny.' I didn't reply to this, simply biting my lip before I remembered I was wearing lipstick. Shit. 'Why are you so protective of him?'

I heard Merritt's words but I didn't fully take them in. I was focused on the trio of men that I'd just spotted walking through security, dressed in identical grey suits, not talking to anyone that they passed and instead focusing on the art that surrounded them. They were acting like guests, just like we were.

But I recognized them as Aaru's men, actually recognized them. They were here. This wasn't just all in my head anymore.

Let the games begin.

\- Thanks so much for reading! How do you think this is going to go?


	39. 38

I removed myself from the dancefloor as soon as I spotted the 5th of Aaru's people to arrive, taking myself to the corner of the room in order to observe them. I hadn't let on to anyone that they were here, Dylan's words still ringing in my ears. I know what he'd do if he found out they were here - he'd try and take me out of the operation and I wasn't going for that. 

I was trying to connect all of the dots in my head, join up all the scraps of information that were floating around with one single thread. So far, no theory that I'd come up with had stuck.

All of Aaru's people - I'd counted them all to be men but was double checking the face and body language of every woman in the room because I knew I couldn't count on them all being male - were yet to make a move and seemed content on simply floating around the room with a glass in their hand. This meant they were waiting for something. I was yet to figure out just what this was.

Something else that was niggling away in my mind was that I hadn't seen Aaru yet. Either he really wasn't interested, this whole thing was a façade and I really needed to calm down or he was just biding his time doing something else.

His men could be waiting for him to show up; that could be their signal to kick things off.

As well as keeping an eye on each of Aaru's men, I was also noting everyone that my target - John Ryan - ended up talking to and then asking Dylan to check those out which I thought looked suspicious. No one had popped so far and aside from all being rich, there didn't seem to be any consistent factor to the people Ryan chose to associate himself with.

The nerves had begun to settle in my stomach but I couldn't be sure whether this was down to the 3 glasses of wine that I'd had or not. It could have been down to the fact that, so far, I'd been doing a whole lot of standing around and a whole lot of nothing.

The arrival of Aaru's men had perked me up a little, however. 

I noticed Atlas approaching me, armed with yet another tray of wine. I was beginning to think the whole objective of tonight was to get everyone drunk rather than unveil a painting. It seemed to be at least the 8th time he'd passed me in the last 10 minutes - what was he doing.

'You're supposed to be being a waiter, not taking laps of the room.' I murmured, watching as he met my gaze and frowned slightly.

'I forgot that you had experience in my field.' I rolled my eyes. 

'Your field.' I repeated sarcastically. 'You're not doing anything.' 

'For that - ' He said in real life, coming towards me so I could pass him my empty glass. 'You're getting no more wine.' 

'I'm so heartbroken.' I said, rolling my eyes again as I watched him walk away into the central part of the room. I needed to stop staring at him, mainly because at that moment Ryan finished up his conversation and began to move across the room. 

And if Ryan was on the move, that meant I was too.

I waited a moment for him to pass me before I cautiously moved with him, leaning against a pillar to watch him start talking to a man who had his back to me and I couldn't see his face. Who was he? Was he important? Was - 

Merritt was stood at the opposite side of the room, his eyes also focused on Ryan and the man he was talking to. Wait. Ryan was talking to Merritt's suspect. 

I saw Merritt trying to get my attention and I narrowed my eyes at him. 'Is there anything to suggest that they know each other?' He asked and I bit my lip. It was true that they were talking and did look pretty friendly. I hadn't found anything in my own research, nor were they listed in each others lists of associates. So what was going on?

I held my breath as I saw Atlas' suspect, the waiter, stop to offer the pair a glass of wine and then stood talking to them for longer than I was sure it was acceptable to. 

'That cannot be a coincidence.' I said, meeting Merritt's and now Atlas's eye who was stood on the edges of my periphery.

'Coincidences don't exist.' Atlas said firmly.

'So they're all in it together.' Merritt murmured. My mind immediately went to the High School Musical reference but I quickly pushed that aside. What did it mean if they all really were in it together? That was one eventuality that we hadn't planned for.

'I can't find anything that would suggest they know each other, but I'll keep looking - ' Dylan said and I sucked in a sharp breath.

'So it's off-book.' Merritt answered. Off-book. Exactly the kind of work that Aaru got his hands dirty with. But that had to be just a coincidence.

Atlas had just said coincidences didn't exist. And he was probably right.

I stayed silent for a moment, my mind whirring. So all of the suspects knew each other, apparently. That wasn't the only thing that I was having trouble getting my head around. Why had Aaru's men been scoping the place out for the last hour? They'd done nothing but walk around and drink wine. That wasn't Aaru's style. He hated wasting time and being unproductive.

'Jack? Where's your target?' 

'Stood out front. He's not moved all night, I'm beginning to get bored.' So if he did know the other suspects, he wasn't letting on and if he'd been in Jack's eye line all night then he couldn't have made whatever signal was the signal for the operation to get going. 

That only left Lula. 

'Lula? Where's your target?' I edged my way around the pillar, trying to hide the anxious look on my face. Merritt and Atlas were giving me confused looks but I didn't have time to explain. 

'Out on a smoke break, why?' I felt myself freeze up. 

'Like fuck he is.' That was it. He'd gone to raise the alarm or get the rest of his team or whatever the plan was that they'd worked out. The others were yelling in my ear but I was trying to get my thoughts in order. We had to do something, now, before they did whatever they'd been planning to do this whole time. 

'Now he's talking in his walkie-talkie.' Jack said suddenly. Considering the man hadn't done anything all night, that had to mean something. He was probably communicating with the rest of his team.

'It's happening now, I'm sure of it. They all know each other and they're all working with Aaru. Some of his men are here so whatever they were planning it's going down now.' I shot Atlas a worried glance. He seemed to be thinking. That was all very well and good but we needed to act.

'Should I go outside and look for him?' Lula asked.

'There's no point, he won't be there. He's probably gone running to Aaru. He'll be the signal.' What did I do? What should I do? We didn't know enough, I didn't know enough about what he was planning.

'I don't mean to worry you guys but there's a car pulling up outside.' 

'Stall him.' I clicked my fingers towards Atlas, watching as he weaved his way through the crowd so he could collect my empty glass. I had the forming of a plan, nothing like the one we'd planned and rehearsed more than a double times but too many things had changed for me to even think of that was a viable option anymore.

'You okay?' He asked and I nodded once . 

'Walk with me.' 

'What?' I didn't answer him as I began gently pulling him through the room. 

'Merritt? Can you keep an eye on the 3 guys?'

'Got it.' 

'Watch out for Aaru, Jack. He's probably armed.' The back of the museum wasn't as busy and there were less people milling around to see me pull Atlas' jacket from his shoulders and wrap it around myself. I pulled the hair tie from my wrist and quickly pulled my hair into a ponytail, the way I'd seen many of the waitress wear their hair. Atlas was looking at me like I was crazy but I knew we only had limited time before Aaru entered the building and shit started.

'And Lula? Any chance you can bring some food out? We're gonna need a distraction. And sharpish. As soon as Aaru enters the building I want everyone to be looking at you.' 

'I'll see what I can come up with.' I didn't know when everyone had started listening to my instructions but I didn't have time to consider it too deeply. 

'I'm trying to stall him.' I said as explanation, turning to Atlas. 'Because they must want the painting for whatever convoluted reason so the only way to keep it safe, to really keep it safe, is to steal it.' 

'The plan was to stop it from being stolen.' Atlas said, as if I'd somehow managed to forget. I shot a glance to the doors. Nothing yet.

'Dylan? Dylan?' There was no answer and that seemed to draw Atlas away from asking me just what the hell I thought I was doing. 

'Dylan? Rhodes?' Atlas tried his earpiece. Still no answer. Fuck. Had Aaru somehow managed to get his hands on Dylan? Even Atlas couldn't hide the panic and frustration from his face. It was different when there was a life on the line. 

'What do we do?' He paused for a moment, looking around the room, before looking back to me.

'Go through with your plan.' Those were words I never thought I'd hear him say. 'I'm going to go and find Dylan.' I buttoned up the front of Atlas' jacket and rolled up the sleeves, surprised to see that it fit me pretty well aside from being tight in the chest area. I'd just have to make it work. 

People would ask less questions about a waitress running around the place as opposed to a guest. I saw the realization dawn on Atlas' face. 

'Your dress is the same colour as the waitress' uniforms.' I shrugged. 

'I may have googled it and coordinated.' 

'You knew this was going to happen?' I shook my head. I'd had no clue that Aaru would end up following me to Paris or that our suspects would all turn out to know each other.

'I'm always prepared. And wasn't even a boy scout when I was younger.' Atlas opened his mouth to say something but I didn't hear, my mind instead focusing on the wave of shouting coming from the foyer area. I felt my heart miss a beat. 

What the fuck was going to happen?


	40. 39

The blueprint of the museum is running through my mind - the blueprint that Dylan had all of us memorize so we knew every corridor, every supply corridor, every window. We'd paid special attention to the room that the painting was being stored in, a piece of information Merritt had gleamed from hypnotizing a guard, and right now that was the only thing on my mind.

I needed to get to the painting before Aaru did. He obviously wanted it for a reason and I wasn't going to let him get his hands on it without figuring out what that reason was.

My only problem was that I knew him and his men would have eyes everywhere, staff they'd bribed to be on their side as well as our 5 suspects that we'd been trailing, and there was only so long Jack could stall him at the foyer. He'd been the one to start the shouting, in an attempt to keep Aaru from entering for as long as he could.

I would need to distract everyone before I could dash up the stairs and that was where, hopefully, Lula would come in. I was trying to give her as much time as possible to get whatever crazy plan she had devised ready but I knew that there was only so long that we could wait.

I was also worried about Dylan and the absence of Atlas at my side was just another reminder that something had happened with him that we hadn't predicted or planned for. I knew that he was tough and not stupid and could handle himself but I also knew Aaru's men. 

They were loyal to him to the death and would do whatever he said without question. If Aaru had told them to kill anybody who got in their way, they wouldn't waver from that mentality for so much as a split second.

If Aaru had told his men that, Dylan was probably already dead.

Dylan was stationed in the storage rooms that were under the museum - the basement as it were - and if Aaru's men were clearing the basement then that meant they were either using that as an escape route which I'd known them to do many times before or they wanted to take control of the entire museum. 

I didn't really know which option was better: the chance of Aaru and his men slipping out of my grip or the chance that Aaru wanted hostages and there was the possibility of a lot of people being hurt.

I needed to focus on getting the painting and hiding it somewhere, whether that was with me or hiding it somewhere and coming back for it at a later date. 

I moved slowly towards the stairs as the voices near the foyer started to rise. I doubted Aaru, or any other reinforcements that he'd brought with him, would be happy about Jack barring their entry. He must know that I was here by now - I was sure that one of the suspects or indeed one of Aaru's men would have told him that I was here. 

If they hadn't, then I was impressed with my own ability to blend in. 

Either way, I was kind of dreading the moment that we inevitably came face to face. Words would be said. And blood would probably be spilt.

'I can't keep Aaru out any longer - ' Jack said suddenly and I sucked in a breath. 'Wylan's searching him now.' That was Jack's target that he'd been following all night. Or not following, seeing as he hadn't moved. 'And, of course, he's found nothing on him and he's walking right in.' 

'There's no way he doesn't have at least 2 guns on him so be careful.' I warned, raising my eyes above the crowd so I could catch a sight of him. He was dressed in a suit, blending in perfectly with the crowd around him. I could see the arrogance on his face, the tension in his hands as he waved away a waiter, the inescapable shape of something strapped to his leg and tucked in his pocket.

I would have bet my car - if I owned a car - that those mysterious shapes were guns.

'Lula? You're up.' I didn't want to give him a chance to get out of my sight and sneak off to do whatever he'd been planning. I certainly didn't want to give him a chance to get any closer to me than he already was as he slowly made his way around the room. 

'Luckily, I've been able to find a table full of canapés and I'm going to faint and let the whole thing crash into a pillar.' 

'Perfect.' I smirked, taking another step backwards towards the stairs. 'Merritt?' 

'They've not moved yet.' He said and I looked over towards the pillar that I knew he was standing behind. 'They're still standing around talking. They've not taken Aaru on at all.' 

'He's probably blackmailing them for information or access or something in return for not killing them.' I said bluntly, knowing that it would be true. 'Atlas?'

'I'm on the stairs, making my way down to the basement now. There's no sign of Dylan or anyone else yet. ' I liked that he instinctively knew not to use the elevators, even if they were faster. The elevators were one of first things Aaru would have his men hack into when he got the chance. 

'Be careful.' I said quickly, clenching my hands together. If Aaru ended up hurting Dylan or Atlas then I couldn't be held responsible for my actions.

I let myself inhale a deep breath as my eyes followed Aaru, watching as he looked over towards various areas of the room, areas where I'd happened to locate his men. Whatever that look meant, I knew that I was running out of time. 

I also let myself feel a short glimmer of pride that I'd been able to locate every one of Aaru's men that were stationed in the room; none of their disguises had worked on me. I needed something positive and empowering to cling onto among everything else that was happening. 

'Lula?' 

'I'm here.' As soon as those words were ringing in my ears, there was a loud crashing noise coming from towards the kitchen and some people started screaming. Lula really was genius, considering how little time I'd given her to think of a plan. But that was my cue to get moving.

I sprinted up the stairs as quickly as I could in my heels, thankful for the fact that I wasn't wearing a floor length dress like many of the other guests in the room. I was praying that Lula's distraction had kept anyone from spotting me as I made my way up the two flights of stairs, but I couldn't waste any time worrying about if they had or not. I had to move quickly. 

I knew what room I was aiming for and, after taking a moment to consider my new position, set off in that direction. I had to get there before Aaru's men did; I had to get to the painting before they did. 

I reached into the clutch that had been stuffed under my arm for the last 20 minutes and pulled out my gun. I'd brought it with me to Paris without telling anyone and I'd brought it tonight without telling anyone either - I knew how the horsemen would freak out and I didn't need to give them anything else to hold against me. It wasn't my fault that holding it in my hand, my fingers gripped around the barrel, made me feel more comfortable. 

Was that something else Aaru had conditioned me to feel? Comfort whilst holding a firearm, something that could kill?

I was running through the museum as quickly as I dared, my fingers clutched around the gun and my ears listening out for the sign of anyone approaching. The faint murmuring of voices from the level beneath me was setting me slightly on edge. 

I backed up against the wall as I finally approached the right corridor, after what seemed like hours of running and pausing and attempting to regulate my breathing. I felt my muscles tense up as I peered around the corner, the sight of the door already open and the sound of voices inside the room sending dread shooting through me.

Shit. I was too late. They were already inside.

It was time for plan B then: take the painting from them when they were leaving the room. 

I shrugged off Atlas' jacket and neatly folded it; I had needed to be a waitress to hide from Aaru's gaze but now I needed to play the confused-and-very-drunk-guest which would hopefully keep me out of the scrutiny of Aaru's men and any other guests or security guards that I came into contact with on the floor. 

Everything seemed to be going wrong tonight - all of our plans had fallen through and we were being forced to come up with new ones on the fly. Did that mean something too? Was all the information we'd received false too? Who was Dylan's source exactly? Did they want something else from Dylan?

Did that mean Atlas was in danger too? Had I sent him straight to the lion's den by sending him after him?

No, I was being paranoid and now obscenely so. I needed to keep my composure. The only thing that mattered was getting the painting before Aaru could get his grubby hands on it and knowing that I'd foiled one of his plans.

I held my breath as the voices in the corridor grew louder. There were 2 of them, both men, but neither one of them people I'd seen downstairs. They must have entered the museum another way. 

But, what? Despite the panic forming in my chest, my eyes narrowed on the 2 figures. They were both clutching guns and tools that I knew were used for lock-picking, but not the painting. They'd left it in the room. They weren't stealing it...

What? That made no sense whatsoever. What was going on?

My head whipped up as I heard sudden shouts coming from the opposite end of the corridor. A security guard, poised with a gun in his hand, was glaring at me and was seeming to ignore the other 2 men who I presumed had hidden behind the conveniently placed potted plant in the corridor.

Shit. The security guard didn't look very friendly and didn't look as though he'd be particularly open to flattery or flirting either, which were my usual go-to techniques. I subtly hid my gun among the material of Atlas' jacket and took a step forward, panic running through my mind. 

I heard furious footsteps running up the stairs and saw Merritt pulling himself onto the corridor, clutching onto his hat and clearly trying to distract the guard from caring too much about me. I appreciated the gesture, aside from it being extremely badly timed. I'd have to have a conversation with him about that.

I waltzed forwards, tripping over my steps as though I was drunk and allowing my face to glaze over. The security guard was still shouting and me and Merritt, thankfully in English as my French was appalling, and I took a deep breath before opening my mouth.

The surprise was clear on Merritt's face as I burst into rapid, if somewhat drawling Spanish, rambling on about how sorry I was and how I'd become hopelessly lost in the corridors after returning from the toilet. I had no clue whether the guard could actually understand my Spanish but the point was made. 

He grimaced and pushed me into Merritt's arms as I starting crying exaggerated tears, still murmuring in Spanish. I looked down the corridor a final time as the security guard saw the open door and quickly locked it. The 2 men had disappeared by now, leaving no sign of them. 

What they had left was the painting. And I had absolutely no bloody idea why. 

I turned to Merritt who was still panting slightly, his cheeks flushed with a slightly awed look on his face. 'What? Did I forget to say that I spoke Spanish?'

That wasn't what I was focusing on at the moment. I had much more pressing matters. Aaru had forced his way into the Louvre and possibly killed Dylan in order to retrieve a painting, a painting which his men had left untouched. What?

What was going on?


	41. 40

Merritt's arm was looped with mine as he led me slowly away from the corridor and back down the stairs as I kept my free hand gripped onto the gun that was still hidden in Atlas' jacket. Merritt was still wearing a confused look and from the way he kept looking at me from the corner of his eye, I knew he was still confused about the Spanish thing. I didn't have time to think too much about it however, I was too busy feeling confused about everything else.

'Why the hell didn't they take the painting?' I murmured. 'That's what they were here for. And they didn't take it.' 

'Then they're here for something else.' Merritt said and I looked over at him. 

'But there's nothing else here that he'd be interested with!' 

'You're here.' Merritt said pointedly and I rolled my eyes. 

'Aaru wouldn't come 3000 miles just for me. He might be obsessed but he's not stupid. There's something else going on.' It was killing me inside that I didn't know what it was. I knew I was going to have to take more definitive action to find it out, seeing just how little we'd achieved from going off some Google searches. 

I paused as we came to the foot of the stairs, the room still filled with guests as my eyes picked out the figures of Aaru, his men, our suspects and the other horsemen. Lula was still lying on the floor and was being helped by a couple of the waiters, squashed canapés covering the floor around her. It was clear from the growing noise coming from the rest of the guests that their shock and surprise was beginning to wear off.

I wouldn't be surprised if Aaru had already moved onto the next stage of his plan, whatever that was. 

'Any sign of Atlas?' Merritt shook his head. 'Maybe the basement is blocking the signal?' That didn't fill me with confidence, either.

'But we could talk to Dylan earlier?' Merritt sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. I would give him a few more minutes and then I would go down there myself and see what was happening. I didn't need any more unanswered questions piling up inside my head. I had enough going on already. 

I could see Merritt's, Atlas' and my targets edging closer to where Aaru was standing and they were looking quite...tense about something. Were they having second thoughts on whatever plan Aaru had dragged them into? Did they want out?

And why were they still here if they didn't want the damn painting? It was driving me mad and scaring me slightly, all at the same time. I was strongly considering going up to Aaru and shaking him by the lapels until he told me. But I knew that wouldn't go down well in the long run. 

'What are they - ' 

'Hold that thought.' I said bluntly to Merritt, holding up a hand to cut him off. My eyes followed Aaru around the room as he started to move; it looked as though he was rounding up his men. Were they about to move?

'My target has reappeared in the kitchen.' Lula said, sounding slightly drowsy as though she really had just fainted onto a marble floor. 

'Keep an eye on him.' I said, turning back to Merritt. 'You need to keep an eye on those 3 as well.' 

'And what are you doing?' I inhaled a deep breath as I saw Aaru start talking to one of his men, one of the men I'd seen in the corridor. How he'd managed to sneak his way back into the room without me seeing him take the stairs was something else I didn't know the answer to, was something else I could be annoyed by, something else that Aaru had upped me on. 'I'm going looking for Dylan and Atlas.' 

'You need to be careful.' He said, gently touching my shoulder before I shook him off. 'Dylan will skin me alive if I let something happen to you.' I could see the sincerity in his expression despite the humour in his voice. 

'Got it.' The blueprint of the museum was already flashing through my mind as I slipped through the crowds of people, Atlas' jacket still in my hand. I was praying that Dylan and Atlas were okay. They had to be okay. I didn't know what I'd do if they weren't. 

But why would they go to the effort of securing the basement if they knew they weren't going to steal something? Maybe they didn't know? What if that was the whole point?

Then what had they needed to check? What had stopped them from taking it? I didn't know and that was what I needed to find out.

I slipped on Atlas' jacket again, wrapping it as tightly around myself as I could as I moved through the crowd. I caught a whiff of his cologne on the lapels and something else that I couldn't put a name to; it was just something that distinctly reminded me of him.

Oh God. I had turned it to the crazed fan that knew what he smelled like and went along smelling his clothes. The wine must be getting to my head. But at least it gave my mind something else to think about as I walked as quickly as I dared through the crowd so not to draw attention to myself. The longer I was in the same building as Aaru, the more it made my skin crawl but I couldn't leave without getting some answers. My curiousity was winning over.

That, and the sense of overwhelming panic. There had been no word from Dylan for half an hour now and nothing from Atlas since he'd gone down to look for him. I could feel my hands beginning to shake as I grasped onto the door handle that led down to the basement. My gun was gripped in my free hand. I couldn't afford to be shaking.

Not that I'd need to actually do anything because they were going to be completely fine. There would be a completely logical explanation behind everything.

I quickly slipped into the semi-darkness of the stairwell and hurried down the stairs, my heels clicking against the concrete as I moved and sending the sound echoing around me. At least that echo meant I'd be able to hear anyone who came up or down the stairs because I couldn't exactly see much in the gloomy light. There must be a light switch around somewhere but I didn't want to waste the time looking for it.

The cold air was biting at my skin through the jacket as I continued downwards, searching the walls for any sign of a light switch. I knew there were several other ways down into the basement but we'd chosen this one because it was the most discrete. I hadn't known that had meant pitch black as well.

But at no point in the planning process had I ever even considered for a second that I would have been deep in a stairwell, wrapped in Atlas' jacket, with my gun in my hand and Aaru and his men walking somewhere above my head. 

I hadn't actually thought that Aaru would show up and the mere fact that he had told me that something was different about this. He was acting out of character. All of his missions were always slick but this one felt more refined than I'd ever seen from him. I hadn't heard a single gun go off yet and no one had been killed, except maybe our plan. 

I reached the bottom of the stairs, a musty smell immediately hitting me in the face. I edged forwards, my gun gripped tightly in my hands as I looked for any sign of light or movement. It was eerily silent. The thick layers of concrete blocked out any of the laughter or the tinkle of music from upstairs. I felt strangely alone, even though I knew Dylan and Atlas had to be around somewhere.

I resisted the urge to call out, Atlas' name dying on my tongue, knowing if it wasn't just Atlas and Dylan down here that would be a sure way to get me killed. Or rather, the name 'Danny' dying in my mouth. I hadn't actually ever called him by his name, that sense of familiarity not something I'd found myself to be comfortable with, but it seemed that all it took was a life-or-death situation to push me to it.

I moved forwards more forcefully, I couldn't afford to waste any extra time. My eyes searched every room I came across but the only things that I saw were the shadows of paintings and artefacts that were being stored. My heart was pounding in my ears, the silence only amplifying that further. Where were they? Where the hell were they?

They would be fine. Aaru wouldn't just kill them for no reason. He might be ruthless and ambitious but he didn't just kill people for the sake of it or without a valid reason. 

I turned a corner, blinking against the wash of faint light that a small, rusty lamp was giving out. There was a figure lying on the floor and another figure kneeling over them, faintly murmuring to them, frustratedly tapping their face. I lowered my gun, almost wanting to cry with relief. 

'Everything okay?' I would have laughed at how quickly he moved, shooting backwards and looking up to meet my gaze, but I knew it wasn't the same. I urged forwards, kneeling down onto the floor and tearing my gaze away from Danny. 

He was okay. He was fine, if somewhat pale but that was probably because of the way I'd surprised him. Dylan, on the other hand, was less so. 

'He's unconscious. He was like this when I got here, they must have knocked him out. And my earpiece packed in on me so that's why - ' Danny rambled and I nodded, only half-listening as I checked Dylan's pulse and his breathing. He didn't have any wounds and his pulse was normal. He was fine other than the fact he was clearly unconscious. And that really wasn't Aaru's style.

If Dylan had stood in his way then he would have killed him. That would be a viable option. He wouldn't waste any energy knocking them out, or he wouldn't have when I knew him. So what was different here? Why the sudden change?


	42. 41

Danny had taken over from me, again, in attempting to drag Dylan out of his unconscious state. None of our methods seemed to be working, however. If I had access to water, I would be seriously considering dousing him in water but I knew that I'd have to be careful about shocking his system too much and causing him permanent damage.

Not that I needed to worry about that, though, seeing as I didn't have access to any water.

There was nothing to suggest that there was anything wrong with Dylan, other than the obvious fact that he was unconscious, but I was beginning to wonder whether we needed to get him to a hospital and that would be a whole other kettle of fish. It would ruin our attempts to keep a low-profile for a start and I didn't know whether anyone knew enough French to get us by in a hospital.

Having said that, I'd somehow managed to go through the last couple of weeks without dropping in that I could speak Spanish. But anyway.

'Guys?' Jack's voice crackled in my ear and while I knew that it wasn't the concrete that had caused us to be unable to speak to Danny, it was clear it was having some impact on the tech. We'd have to think about that later. 'Aaru looks like he's leaving.' 

'He's what?' Danny's head whipped up as my pitch suddenly increased and I froze. He was leaving? So soon?

'He's just walking right out of the door, back to his car. Least I think his car was parked over there' My mind was whirring. He'd brought a car and that could mean a number of things: he was staying quite a distance away and it wasn't plausible to walk, he'd planned ahead and had brought the car because he wanted to get away quickly suggesting he thought there would be some kind of chase on his departure or because he was scared of something and wanted the protection.

None of those options seemed realistic and that meant there had to be another alternative; if there was anything I knew about Aaru, it was that he was a true showman and lived for keeping up appearances. 

'The car's just for show, he's going to be going on foot to whatever hole he crawled out of.' I said. 'He wanted to add to the power and wealth that he appears with.' It was just like my dress and Merritt's absurdly shiny shoes - it was just window dressing. 

But the fact that he'd even bothered to bring the car in the first place also told me some things - he'd expected to be around a lot longer than he was and had expected to play a much bigger role. He'd expected to go home with the painting and needed a way to get it out. He could hardly go walking away from the museum clutching their stolen painting. 

But none of that had happened, because they'd decided to leave the painting for whatever stupid reason. And - 

'Margot?' I blinked suddenly as an outside noise started talking. Danny had been trying to speak to me and I'd been completely shutting him out, trapped in a wall of my own thoughts like I so often was. I blinked again, trying to push myself back into the moment. Dylan. 

'Yeah?'

'Any idea what Aaru is doing?' 

'I'm getting there.' I murmured, more to myself than to him as my eyes fixed on the corridor behind Danny that, if I remembered all of the blueprints correctly and I was sure that I did considering how long Dylan had made us consult them, it led directly out of the museum, straight into the heart of Paris. 

We had nothing right now.

No painting, no lack of a painting, no thief because nothing had been stolen and that was the entire point. We had no answers to any of our questions, no conclusion to our plan and no complementary check from the police when we handed their criminal and painting over. No crook in handcuffs; we didn't even know who the crook was. Aaru could very easily be working with someone else, someone else who thought that they were calling the shots. 

Aaru was probably walking through the streets right this very second. He knew exactly what he was doing. I didn't. I picked my earpiece out of my ear and dropped it lightly on the floor. 

I took off down the corridor, the chilliness of the concrete cavern hitting me like a dagger.

'What the hell are you doing?' Danny yelled, his voice echoing. I heard him murmuring something, presumably to the rest of the horsemen which was the whole reason I'd left my earpiece. 'What about Dylan?'

I had to do this, even if it was killing me to walk away. I couldn't let this go. I had to do this and not just for the plan but because this was for me. Because Aaru, my ex-boyfriend, ex-abuser, ex-drug dealer, had followed me across the ocean and I had absolutely no idea why other than to piss me off. 

But that was going to change.  
***  
It was easy to find Aaru and his men once I maneuvered myself out of the museum. There were only so many directions they could have taken and once I started picking out the sounds of their voices and their footsteps and the way they kicked trash to the side of the sidewalk as they moved, I found them in no time. 

I walked quickly, keeping my steps quiet as I pulled Danny's jacket as tight around myself as I could. I hadn't registered the coldness in the air inside the museum, I'd been too wired thinking about everything else. But now the cold was beginning to seep into my bones and the thin fabric of the jacket was only doing so much to keep it out.

I tried not to think of the horsemen as I cautiously followed behind Aaru and his men; I knew they probably hated me for going off on my own but I hadn't been left with much choice.

They probably really hated me right now. But that was just something I was going to have to deal with later.

I hurriedly crossed the street, keeping an eye on the retreating back of Aaru as he turned the corner. He was surrounded by at least a dozen of his men, some who I was sure hadn't even set foot inside the museum. I recognized most of them for the glimpses at their profiles that I'd been able to catch but a couple of them were unfamiliar. That could just be because I'd been out of the game for a while.

Aaru had an almost constant stream of new recruits. It never really mattered whether someone died because there was always someone else ready to take their place. 

My hands were cold anyway but the coolness of the metal of the gun was chilling them even more. I was glad I'd brought it, though. I didn't think I would need it - at least I really hoped I wouldn't - but it made me feel more comfortable nevertheless.

After another 5 minutes or so, Aaru eventually came to a halt in an alley. I checked all of the entry and exit points in case anyone crept up on me undetected and let my body sink into the wall. Alleys weren't his usual hiding place so what was he doing?

Just like everything else that happened tonight, it didn't make much sense.

To get some answers I was going to have to swallow my panic and attack this head-on. At least I had the element of surprise on my side.

'This place definitely isn't up to your usual standards - ' Everyone whipped around as I slunk out from behind the wall, my hand holding the gun firmly behind my back. Aaru was the last to turn, something of a smug look on his face. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd anticipated this happening from the beginning.

'Didn't your magician friends tell you to stay away from me?' I didn't reply. He was just trying to get into my head; there was no way he could confirm that and he was taking to making random guesses to try and rile me up. 

'What are you doing here?' I pressed on. 'You don't care about art.' 

'How do you know?' He shot back indignantly, pushing his hands into his pockets as he took a lesuirely step forwards. I was under no illusion that Aaru, along with the rest of his men, were completely outgunning me but I was going to try and prevent things from getting to that stage. I didn't want bloodshed, only information.

'I spent 2 years as your personal pet. I know every inch of you.' He knew every inch of me too and he knew it. 

'Then you'll know that I'm open to new ideas.' He turned his attention away from me as another one of his cronies suddenly appeared and starting whispering something into his ear. I urged myself forward, trying to catch some of the words. Aaru sent him off running back into a side street. What was that about?

'You need to tell me the truth.' I said, my voice firm, but Aaru just smirked and rolled his eyes.

'And here I was thinking that you'd train your monkeys a bit better.' 

'What the hell are you talking about?' I spat, eying the nearest of Aaru's men. He was getting a little too close for my liking. But all thought of that was dashed from my mind when the man Aaru had spoken to just seconds ago reappeared, dragging and dazed and bleeding J. Daniel Atlas along with him by the collar of his shirt.

What. The. Fuck. 

'It looks like he was following you.' Aaru said with a grin, yanking on Danny's arm and sending him to his knees. He nose was dripping blood and the red was striking in contrast to the sallowness of his skin. I didn't think any of them would have the balls to come after me. It appeared that one of them did.

I opened my mouth to speak before Aaru kicked Danny sharply in the ribs, sending him hunching over himself, his arms wrapped around himself. The words died in my mouth, my tongue seeming to shrivel up in my mouth. 

I wasn't going to involve another person in this mess. But I clearly had some decisions to make now, like how I was going to get the pair of us out alive.

'So, how about you tell me how you've been, Margot?' Aaru asked, his voice still light and smug. I couldn't speak as I searched Danny's face for any flicker of his cocky, arrogant persona. I caught what I presumed was supposed to be a wink, if his eye wasn't swollen. He hadn't cracked him yet.

I heard Aaru sigh, clearly not satisfied with my silence and then I heard Danny let out a sudden groan. Aaru had pulled a gun out and was now aiming it at Danny's temple.

Fuck.


	43. 42

'How about now?' Aaru's smile widening across his face. My heart was racing and my hands were sweating over the handle of the gun but all I could manage was a sly glare in Danny's direction. He had put us both in this situation, after all. It was his stupid fault for deciding to follow me. 

I sucked in a deep breath. I could yell at him later. I had to get us both out of there first. It was clear Aaru wasn't in a co-operating mood. 

I could handle myself. It was Danny I was worried about.

He was looking rather sorry for himself, his hands anxiously twitching in his lap as his chest heaved. He looked like he was doing his best to control his breathing but that was never going to be easy when you had a gun held to your head. I quickly scanned over him, a voice in the back of my mind reminding me that if I remained motionless for too long then Aaru would start to get suspicious.

Danny didn't seem to have any other injuries aside from his bleeding nose and panic-stricken body language that he was doing his best to hide and that was good, because that hopefully meant they weren't intending to kill him.

And that was always a reassuring thought.

'I'd almost forgot you were a psychopath.' I said slowly, adjusting my grip on the gun that was still clasped behind my back. 'But you've just reminded me.'

Danny let out a grunt as the gun was pushed deeper against his skull. Aaru raised an eyebrow at me. If I'd thought Danny had been cocky when I'd met him, I'd obviously forgot about Aaru. Asshole.

I needed to keep a lid on it. Not let my emotions get the better of me because then there was a real chance that Danny would get hurt. I didn't know what I would do with myself then. The fact that I cared so much about him, about the horsemen, was something that I didn't want to admit.

But this wasn't because it was Danny, in his perfectly pressed suits and messy hair. At least that was what I was telling myself. It was because he was a real, living, breathing human who can gotten in the way of whatever thing me and Aaru had going on between us. Enough people had died at my hands and I was determined not to increase that total.

'So this is how this is going to go down - ' Aaru said suddenly, all sign of smugness disappearing from his face as his voice turned cold.

'No.' I needed to take some of the control back, no matter how small. We were in a dark, seemingly endless alley, I was surrounded by at least a dozen of other men and I had 1 gun. I had to get some control back some how. 'Let me tell you how this is going to go down. You're going to let Atlas go and then you're going to let us walk away, because you're clearly not in the negotiating mood.' 

The gun was burning a whole in my back as I tried to relax my hand to stop my fingers from cramping up. A way that I could seize some of the control back would be the use the only element that I had on my side - surprise. I wanted to keep my gun a secret for as long as I could but I knew that eventually I was going to have to move. If I left it too late, then he might just get bored and shoot Danny for the shits and giggles.

'Everyone here knows that that isn't going to happen.' Aaru said with a wry laugh and I wanted to punch the smug look off his face. 

'Everyone here knows that you're a dick.' I said bluntly, taking a step forwards. The man nearest to me reached for something at his belt. Aaru would make sure that they were all armed to the teeth. But they didn't expect me to be. 'Oh sorry, am I disrespecting your leader?' I said sarcastically, forcing myself to smirk. 'How rude of me. I'll just ignore all the people that he's killed and the fact that he sold me off as a prostitute.'

I ignored Danny's gaze, in stead keeping focused on Aaru. The last thing I needed right now was to get distracted and I found Danny's face to be very distracting sometimes, especially when I'd just admitted something about myself that I hadn't told anyone in what felt like forever. I ignored the lump that was forming in my throat.

I heard the metallic click that had been seared into my brain - the loading of a gun. I met the eyes of the man stood nearest to me, his hands suddenly stilling. I felt the air freeze around me. Aaru didn't care about casualties, but I did. And I was going to have to move first to show it.

I surveyed the man for a second before drawing the gun out from behind my back and shooting the man in the shoulder. He crumpled to the floor, groaning as he clutched his shoulder. He'd be fine, a wound like that wasn't fatal. I sighed dramatically and turned my attention back to Aaru. Danny had gone even paler and looked like he was about to throw up. 

'It really is Russian roulette for which of your people you deem important enough to wear a bullet proof vest and those that you don't.' Aaru didn't speak, shooting some of his men silent glares. We were running out of time.

I met Danny's gaze, giving him what I hoped was a reassuring look and that he got the message of what I was trying to do. I was praying that he'd got the message or the next thing I was going to do would look pretty bad.

Without pausing, I shot the man nearest to Aaru in the chest, sending him staggering backwards, and then Aaru. They were both wearing bullet-proof vests - I could see the silhouettes under their clothes - but I only needed to surprise them for a moment and distract the rest of his men to give Danny a chance to break free of Aaru's grip and make a run for the street. 

It seemed that, despite his panic, he'd been able to figure out what I was trying to do because before I could register, Danny was flying out of the alley and grabbing onto my arm as he urged me to follow him. I started running as fast as I could, forcing myself not to look over my shoulder to see if they were following us.

Of course they were going to follow us, but checking would only slow me down.

I pumped my arms and legs faster, feeling my hair whip around my face and my lungs gasped from breath. Danny was frantically looking around him for something and while at first I thought it was for Aaru, I realised it wasn't when he suddenly changed direction down a street and I had no option to follow him.

Where was he going? The only thing of any note down the street was a motorbike leaning up against a house.

'We can't lead them back to the house.' He gasped between panting for breath as I caught up to him.

'What?' 

'We lead them back to the hotel and then everyone's in danger. We need to lose them.' 

'Are you - ' 

'The only thing I'm thinking about right now is staying alive and we going to greatly increase that number if we lose them in the street, rather than inside the hotel where they know we are.' He tugged on the chain that was wrapped around the handles and then climbed onto the motorbike.

'You can ride that thing?' I asked, panicked, as I shot a look behind me. I understood what he was saying but if he'd only ever ridden a scooter, it didn't matter what we were riding on or where we were going because they'd catch us anyway.

'Yeah, I have one - ' 

'What?' I let him pull me on beside him because my mind was too busy spinning. Danny had a motorbike? Danny, who wore sweaters and slacks daily and probably collected rare first editions of books, had a motorbike? He was a biker dude?

It was too much for me to handle. The fact that he owned a motorbike suddenly made him about a million times hotter than he already was.

'Hold onto me.' He suddenly tore out of the street and I was forced to wrap my arms around his stomach, resting my head against his back. I winced slightly at the roar the echoed through the streets as Danny shot down the road, halting for a moment to give Aaru time to figure out where we were before beginning to lead them away from the direction of our hotel.

I was too busy processing that nerdy, snarky Danny had a motorbike and my ex-boyfriend that hadn't stolen something for the first time in his life was currently hurtling down the street after us, undoubtedly about to steal a car to keep up with us, to concentrate on the feeling of being so physically close to him, to have his body beneath my arms and for wisps of his hair to be tickling my face.

\- Thanks so much for reading everyone! What do you think so far?


	44. 43

I gripped onto Danny tighter as we flew around a corner. A part of my brain was screaming at me to slow down and get off the death trap that I was currently sitting on but I knew that that wasn't an option. As I'd predicted, Aaru and some of his men were now riding in a black sedan that they'd picked up from somewhere and were matching our speed. They'd be onto us if there weren't 2 cars separating us.

I'd never been so thankful for traffic.

We were heading deeper and deeper into the town center in an attempt to lose them in the chaos of late-night traffic. I'd met Aaru's eye twice while scanning the roads for them and I was happy to see that both times, he'd been clutching at his shoulder. He'd been wearing a bullet proof vest but I'd managed to hit him on the top of his arm where he had no protection. It was only a flesh wound but it would be stinging like mad.

Good.

We whipped past a flurry of motorbikes that were heading in the opposite direction, because late-night biker gangs were apparently a big thing in Paris. I still couldn't get my head around that not only could Danny ride a motorbike, but he actually owned one. 

It turned me on a little bit. Was that weird? Did anyone else know he had a motorbike? Maybe I could sell it to the papers or the gossip forums and make a fortune.

'I'm going to try and lose them in a minute.' He shouted over the rush of the wind. He hadn't spoken since he'd started the attention but I could see how tightly he was clenching his shoulders to know that he was a little bit stressed as well as injured. The fact that Aaru had hurt him made me almost shake with anger. 'Are you okay back there?'

'Fine.' He sounded a little breathless as he spoke but I knew that that could have been my ears playing tricks on me again. I couldn't hear much over the blood rushing through my ears and the furious beating of my heart in my chest and I knew that that had very little to the fact that I was so close to Danny. 

I always felt uneasy when I saw Aaru and this time was no different, even if I had sought him out this time rather than the other way round. But thank God I had, or Danny might have been seriously hurt - but if I hadn't gone after him, Danny wouldn't have gone after me. I was the root cause of everything, all this pain and hurt. As per usual.

But he'd been a matter of inches in front of me and I knew, we both knew and that was something else that terrified me, that if I hadn't had my gun with me then that interaction would have gone much worse. He would have had every bit of the power and Danny probably would be dead right now.

My hands were sweating just thinking about it. I felt guilty that I was basically wiping them on Danny's shirt as I clutched on him but there was nothing either of us could do right now.

Concentrating on my feelings and what had just happened between us meant that I wasn't thinking about how we were weaving in and out of streets and between cars and that meant there was less of a chance that I would throw up all over Danny and that definitely wouldn't be the way to make him like me.

I was crazy. I knew I was, but there didn't seem to be anything I could do to stop my crazy thoughts. I knew that I cared about him more than the rest of the horsemen; the number of times I'd looked out for him in the museum was testament to that. Maybe even more than Dylan and that was where my thoughts got really crazy because I'd known Dylan for years.

I'd known Danny for a matter of weeks at this point. Could you really form an attachment to someone so quickly? Oh God. I really was turning into Cosette from Les Mis. 

I worried about him more than the others, too. And he had a way of making me distracted that no one else could. I mean, all of them were attractive people but none of them were...Danny. I hated how love struck I sounded. I was no better than those obsessed fans who threw themselves at him and camped out at venues just in case they got to glimpse him from a distance.

I knew what my feelings were, though, no matter how stupid they were and how much I hated myself for thinking them. Whenever I caught his eye, or caught him looking at me, I suddenly start feeling like warm and flustered and my limbs would start to tingle. I seemed to have memorized his scent. 

I liked him. I knew that I liked him. I liked him and that was terrifying.

The last time I'd liked someone he had turned out to be a killer and a psychopath who was now one of my 3 greatest fears. 

To admit that I liked someone else, someone new, was opening myself up to go through all that again - because even though people told me that no one else could turn out like Aaru, I couldn't believe them.

***  
After whizzing through the late-night traffic, Danny declared that we'd finally lost them and quickly took us back to the hotel. We dumped the motorbike a couple of streets away in case Aaru's men did catch up to us. 

I still felt jittery and slightly intoxicated - I figured that the wine I'd drank must be beginning to catch up with me - as we made our way through the hotel. We didn't speak and I was glad of that; I was too busy thinking about what words the horsemen were going to yell in my face when I came face to face with them. They must hate me right now. They would probably dump my ass on a plane and send me packing. Or leave me out on the street for Aaru to find. Or...

Danny's was scrolling through his cell as we walked; he probably had countless messages from the horsemen what had happened. I didn't want to think about my cell which I'd stuffed to the bottom of my clutch and forced myself to ignore. Why was it so much easier for me to handle a gun compared to a cell phone? Wasn't that all kinds of messed up?

As well as Danny's bleeding nose and lip, I'd also noticed that he was gingerly using his left foot and was walking with a limp. He'd gently shrugged off my attempt to link his arm with my own so I could do nothing but watch him struggle to the door and push it open.

I felt as though all the air had been sucked from my lungs, from my brain, from my body. I let myself simply focus on Danny's figure because that didn't take any thinking on my part. Everything else was arbitrary as he threw himself down on the sofa with a sigh and pulled his left leg up to dangle over the arm of the chair. He carefully untied his dress shoes before neatly placing them on the floor and running a hand through his hair. 

God, he was cute.

I had it real bad.

I felt the air suddenly rush back into me, as though I'd been holding my breath under water and maybe I had. I blinked, the figures of Dylan, Lula, Merritt and Jack materializing in front of me. Dylan was okay? Since when?

I blinked again, flickers of sound reverberating in my ears. It didn't take a genius to realize that they were angry with me, the way their mouths were furiously moving, their eyes sharp, the hand that Dylan used to push himself from his chair clenched. 

What had I done? Why was I so stupid?

Because I'd wanted some answers. Because I'd wanted to claim back a scrap of my pride in upping Aaru at his own game. Because I was sick of simply reacting to what he threw my way, I wanted to act first and see him squirm instead.

Their voices crashed around me in an overwhelming wave and I stopped trying to pick out their individual words. Did Merritt say something about me having a lobotomy? Probably.

The feelings that I'd pushed deep down into the pit of my stomach, the feelings that my furious adrenaline had been able to hide, were forcing themselves back at full force. I could feel my hands beginning to shake, the first sign that always hit me when I was feeling anxious or uneasy or when my mind simply couldn't cope with what was happening around it.

I felt clammy, my hairs on my skin standing on end as I tried to force myself to take deep, steady, breaths which was what all the websites and leaflets told you to do when you were feeling overwhelmed. 

Were they still shouting at me? Probably. I doubted there was any way for me to come back from the stunt that I'd pulled. I couldn't hear anything over the rushing of my blood and the pounding in my ears anyway.

I felt my back crash into something hard and unmoving, a twinge of pain shooting up my spine but I felt too numb to take much notice of it. I'd read somewhere that pain was all in someone's mind - as soon as they felt determined not to feel it any more then they didn't. Except I wasn't trying not to feel physical pain, it just sort of happened.

The corners of my vision were beginning to go a little burry and my chest felt tighter, tighter than that time the curtain rail had fallen onto me as a teenager and Dad had had to make me to the hospital. There was a pressure on my shoulder. Why was my chest hurting so much? Why was the room spinning? Why - 

 

\- A bit of a darker, more serious end to the chapter. How do you think the horsemen will react to Margot going off on her own?


	45. 44

I didn't know how long I'd been sat on the floor for. I wasn't really paying attention to that. I knew that people kept approaching me - I'd feel the dip of the floor, their breathing, a warm hand on my shoulder - but I'd shrug them off and close my eyes again, leaning my head back against whatever shelf I was leaning against. 

The only thing that I could visualize, the only thing that seemed to be filling my head was Aaru. I was sick of him by now. I was sick of mentioning his name; I was sick that I had to keep thinking about him and telling myself that I was fine and having other people tell me that I was fine too. I wanted to be fine.

But the frequency of these episodes obviously showed that there was something I hadn't handled yet, some reason that I couldn't get him out of my head.

I mean, the fact that he was still around wasn't exactly ideal. 

I'd been reminded just of what he was capable of - he could travel across the world to not steal a painting, to follow me, to do whatever plan he'd come up with. And he would. I was kidding myself that I'd ever be able to get away from him.

And whenever he went, death and bloodshed followed. The dark emptiness of his eyes only reminded me of the death's that I'd been forced to play a part in, the people who would never walk or breathe or sleep again. Danny's blood running down his face, splattering on the concrete, on my shoes, on my hands.

If Aaru killed him, I would have spent the rest of my life tearing him apart. He's caused too much pain for me to be able to just leave it.

I flexed my fingers as I felt the floor dip beneath me, the shuffling of footsteps and then a sigh as someone sat down next to me. I instinctively scooted a little further away from them, cursing my muscle memory. As if Aaru would be able to step foot inside the room without my nerves standing on end, let alone come and sit down next to me.

The person didn't move for a while; they barely seemed to breathe as I picked at my fingernails and tried to keep my mind on something that wasn't everyone around me dying at Aaru's hand for more than a moment. Instead, I focused on the gentle tapping coming from the person next to me as they played out a rhythm on their knee using their fingers. I breathed in the scent of the cologne that was somewhat fading but still tangible.

The scent that I seemed to have seared into my head. Danny's.

I didn't know where the other horsemen were. I hadn't heard their voices for a while now.

It still felt strange to call him that, even if that was his name. Atlas had felt so much more impersonal and therefore void of any feeling. Danny reflected the way my heart would beat a little faster whenever I was near him and not in the way that prompted me to think I was on the verge of a panic attack. 

'You saved my life.' His words were so quiet that I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly. I didn't reply straight away but looked over at him instead. He had changed out of his waiters' disguise and had replaced it with a dark gray sweater and dark jeans. I shrugged slightly.

'I'm sick of people dying because of me.' Neither of us mentioned the fact that I had technically put him in that position - he wouldn't have followed me if I hadn't followed Aaru. 

I wiped my eyes on the back of my hand, the remnants of my tears still clinging to my eyelashes. I was sure my face was covered in tears and snot and sweat that had streaked my makeup all over my face but Danny didn't mention this either - nice of him not to make a sarcastic comment for once. 

No. I needed to give him more credit; I needed to stop letting the cynical part of my brain rule all of the time because people were better than that part of my brain told me they were. And Danny wasn't wholly made up of scathing comments and sarcastic wit. He could be kind when he wanted to be and that was something else I had to get used to.

People really could do good things because they felt like it or because that's just how they were, rather than having some ulterior motive and expecting something else in return. I'd forgotten that.

'I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.' I could feel the tears building up behind my eyes again, threatening to spill out. But I was sick of keeping everything locked up inside me. I was drowning in it. 'I'm sorry I fucked everything up and put this whole thing at risk but I just - I had to. That's just what I - ' My voice sounded thick and congealed and I was surprised Danny could even understand what I was saying. 

'No.' He said gently, yet firmly. 'No, you didn't fuck everything up. Aaru and whoever else is involved in this are the one's who fucked everything up. If you hadn't been there, then I'd definitely be dead by now.' 

'If I hadn't gone after him, you wouldn't have gone after me and I wouldn't have put you in that position.' I breathed, my words sharper than I'd intended. But that was the truth. Danny could thank me for saving his life until he was blue in the face but I was the one who'd put him there in the first place. I was the reason his lip had swelled up to nearly twice its normal size. 

Danny let out a sigh and I saw him look down at his hands. I noticed a flush of color on his cheeks and my brows furrowed. Was he feeling embarrassed or was that just the odd lighting? Was he embarrassed about having followed me?

Why had he followed me? That was something he'd yet to answer to. 

'You're pretty handy with a gun, though.' He said before I could put my thoughts into words. It had never felt like something to be proud of because it was yet another thing that Aaru had taught me. But the way Danny said it made me almost forget that it was a weapon - it was just another skill that I had, something like knitting or making origami dragons. Only origami dragons couldn't save lives or take them.

'Really?' I said with a smirk, half-laughing as I rolled my eyes. I stopped myself from making a comment about how adept he was with his hands and how he'd probably be good with one too. 'Looks like that's something else I can do that you can't.'

'That's a very short list.' He said shortly but I ignored him. My eyes were beginning to droop slightly and the full weight of my exhaustion was lying on my shoulders. My legs still felt as though they were shaking, though, and I didn't know how far I'd be able to walk without dropping. 

Danny pushed himself to his feet and offered me a hand. 'Do you want some help going back to your room? Or at least to the couch?'

'So I'm not being shipped back to Washington Heights in a coffin?' I joked bluntly, reminding myself that while Danny didn't seem to hate, that was no indication of what the others thought of me. 

'As if we'd actually do that.' 

'But the others must hate me - ' 

'They don't hate you.' Danny assured as he steadily pulled me to my feet. I really was exhausted. I gave him a solid look. I didn't really believe that. 'They don't. Hence why they are currently loitering around in your room figuring out a way to make it up to you.' 

That couldn't be right. I'd slaughtered the whole operation. But - 

'Jack's not one for shouting at the ladies until they burst into tears and fall to the floor. It was very jarring for him; he's going to need some time to adjust.' Danny continued in his light, teasing tone and I sighed, tucking my hand into the crook of his elbow as he took a few steps forward. 

I wasn't being killed. I wasn't hated. Everything was okay. 

But then again, it really wasn't because when was it ever?


	46. 45

I'd moved myself onto the couch, with a little steadying from Danny, and was now sitting with my legs dangling over the arm and my arms tucked around a blanket. I was still in my dress, because the energy to change had been lost a long time ago, and my hair was fanned out behind my hair, undoubtedly mixed up in knots.

But I didn't care because the horsemen were sat across from me, fighting over a bowl of Cheetos as though nothing had ever happened.

It seemed that Danny hadn't been lying and they really had been lurking outside the door figuring out how to make it up to me, Danny included after he'd deposited me on the sofa. We'd talked everything out and Lula had gone out to buy cake from the bakery across the street and Jack had found a handful of beers from somewhere and even Dylan had started cracking a few jokes.

I was now seriously considering just moving to Paris because of the cake. I was already onto my second piece and was sure that I was becoming addicted. Collapsing on the floor and having a panic attack were very taxing after all.

While I had moved onto my second piece of cake, Merritt had turned his attention to unpicking every second of the evening that I hadn't focused on because I'd been too busy thinking about everything that could go wrong. It seemed that I'd missed an awful lot. 

Firstly, Danny had apparently had a female admirer, much to Merritt's enjoyment as he seemed intent on drawing out his embarrassment. 

And Danny was sat directly across from me which meant I got front-row seats.

'I'm telling you, that woman was into you and you completely froze up and - ' 

'This might be a difficult concept for you to grasp, Merritt, but I was playing a role.' Danny said with a roll of his eyes. 'It's called being in character. And I was playing the character of a confused and anxious waiter who - '

'That's bullshit. You were playing the role of J. Daniel Atlas who, contrary to his cocky attitude and ego the size of South America, doesn't know what to do when women start talking to him.' 

'I can talk to women, that's a lie - ' Danny shot back, his brows furrowing. His eyes flickered around the room and I suddenly became very invested in my lemon and pistachio slice because I was very invested because it was fucking delicious. 

But I didn't want to be the one to be dishing out relationship advice to him. Or rather, 'relationship' advice because nothing had actually happened. From the sound of it, he needed to grow something of a backbone and stop tripping over his tongue. 

'Sure you can, buddy.' Jack said with a chuckle.

'I can talk to Lula - ' Danny demanded and Lula held her hands up. 

'I am not getting involved in this.'

'And that's women who are sexually attracted to you. And not just for the person they think you are, like your groupies who are obsessed with J. Daniel Atlas who they come up with in their heads.' Merritt immediately replied, a cat-like grin on his face. It almost seemed as though he'd planned this argument to provide maximum ego-bashing and discomfort on Danny's part.

'You should have told her you can ride a motorbike.' I said, quickly swallowing the cake that was in my mouth. All girls love a biker guy - ' I smirked, watching Jack chuckle and shoot something that looked like a wink in Lula's direction. Was that some kind of inside joke for them? What did it mean?

Danny didn't reply as he took a large gulp of his beer and Merritt sighed dramatically because we could both see through his behavior. He was searching for ways to get out of the conversation and had obviously decided drinking was a good way to get there.

'Is that actually true, though? Or is that just in the movies?' I shrugged at Merritt's words. Claude had begged Ben on a number of occasions to get a bike because she found them sexy - but that was also because she wanted to ride on the back wearing a headscarf and looking like some kind of Italian movie star from the 50s. 

'Not all girls, I'm sure. But some do.' 

Like me. I wanted to scream it across the room and actually bit my lip to stop myself from doing so. Because I was a rock-chic at heart and Danny was a biker guy. 

I quickly blinked away when I realized I'd been starring off into space. Could the others tell that when I'd said that, I'd really meant me? Probably. 

I had spent the better part of the last few weeks pointing out how observant the horsemen were. 

'See! You need to be more sure of yourself - ' Merritt started, in a 'helpful' tone that didn't look to be helping Danny out at all. 

'You sure you aren't just sexually frustrated?' Merritt let out a snort as I spoke and Jack and Lula shared a look. I raised my eyebrow in Danny's direction and he rolled his eyes, glaring back at me. I thought it was a reasonable assumption because the J. Daniel Atlas that was portrayed in the gossip columns and the one who was in front of me seemed to be two completely different people.

'You're really going to ask me that?' I shrugged, smirking a little as he squirmed in his seat. He met Merritt's gaze for a moment as he scowled and there seemed to be some sort of unspoken conversation going on between them. Was Merritt telepathic as well as a hypnotist?

'What?'

'It's an inside joke.' Merritt brushed off with a grin. 'You won't get it.' Because that obviously wasn't clear already. From the way Lula and Jack seemed to be constantly wrapped up in each others' attention and the annoying winks Merritt send Danny, it was clear there were a lot of inside jokes and stories that weren't open to me.

Danny shot Merritt another glare before his eyes flickered over to me and then back to Merritt as he frowned again. Wait. Did this inside joke have something to do with me? Was that another reason why I wouldn't get it?

I re-crossed my legs over the arm of the chair and roughly ran a hand through my hair, annoyed at the knots that snagged against my fingers. Whatever the inside joke was, it was clearly something Merritt had come up with and would be something just as childish as he usually came out with. 

I hoped. Because what did that mean if they were coming up with inside jokes about me?

I drew my gaze away from Merritt and Atlas and towards the door leading to the bedrooms. Dylan had been on the phone with the Eye for the best part of half an hour and judging from the tired expression on his face, it had been entirely positive.

'So - ' He sighed, clapping his hands together and drawing all our attention towards him. It was hard for me to look him squarely in the eye after what had happened. I was going have to work on that. 'It looks like we need to come with a new plan.' 

***  
By the time Danny was sorting our second batch of coffee, it felt like we'd examined and then cross-examined every single second of the party and every single second of what had happened and none of us had been able to come to an agreement about what had happened and what we should do next.

It was exhausting listening to so many opinions at once and trying to make sense of them. I'd remained mostly silent in the whole thing, trying to get everything straight in my head but all I seemed to be doing was going around in circles.

'Margot? Any ideas?' 

'I think that Aaru came to the museum with the intention to steal the painting and so he sent his men to get it. But then something made them leave it.'

'Which is?' The question hung empty in the air. What was Aaru interested in? And what would make him deter from that goal?

'It's a fake.' I breathed after a moment. 'That's the only explanation. That's - ' 

It was a fake. Of course it was a fake. It had to be. Once Aaru's men had found this out, there was no reason for them to take it. Aaru, or his boss, or his buyer obviously wanted the real deal.

'So it's a fake. And?' Jack asked, reaching for his cup of coffee as Danny placed them in the middle of the table.

'His men knew what to look for. They knew what they wanted.' Yet even this realization didn't explain what Aaru wanted with the painting in the first place. I knew that it could be a standard trade where someone was paying Aaru to steal it for them but he didn't tend to do many of these. He preferred working on his own terms. 

Fuck that, I did know why he was interested in the painting and that was because it was worth thousands and he was interested in anything that had a 3 figure price tag or more. But why art? It just made no sense.

The table was scattered with sheets of our research that we'd been checking and double checking and most of them had spilled out onto the floor. We had maps of Paris, guest lists, surveillance pictures, pages from Google about the history of the paintings and copies of bank statements. Nothing to tell us what the hell Aaru was doing here, other than being his usual money-making self. 

He could do that over in Washington Heights. Why this? Why now?

My eyes were drawn to a page that had been printed out from the internet showing a blown up image of the painting in question. It was rumored to be more than 200 years old, painted by an obscure Dutch painter that know one knew much about and had been worth basically nothing until the artist's checkered past had begun to be revealed to modern society. 

To me, it just looked like a group of blurry figures dancing in a field. But I was no art critic, despite the two art books that I'd bought from the gift shop.

My eyes ran over the deep brushstrokes, the shades of green and pink and yellow and grainy black that had streaked across the sheet from the printer. Something about the colour scheme and the proportions of the figures stuck out in my mind but I couldn't identify why. I must have seen a copy of the painting, or another of the artist's works, in my books.

'So, we've got our orders.' Dylan said with a sigh as I picked up the sheet of paper to take a closer look at the painting, the knowledge that I'd seen it somewhere before rooting itself in my head. 'We're to spend a few more days in Paris but, if nothing comes up, we're to head back to New York.' I was barely taking in Dylan's words, the cogs in my mind too busy whirring. 

I'd seen the same style, the same colours somewhere else before. I knew I had. And yet I just couldn't say - 

'Wait.' I knew that I'd seen it somewhere before. I knew I had and - ' I've got it.' 

If I was right, then it would explain just what Aaru was doing here, just why he was so invested in what appeared to be a random art case, why he was so invested in following me here.

Shit. Holy shit.

-What's Margot discovered? Any thoughts?


	47. 46

I ran the length of the corridor twice in order to get to my room, drag my laptop off my bed and make my way back to the boy's room. I'd left with a flurry of questions being thrown at me, all of which I'd left unanswered. I could still be wrong with my idea. 

My hands fumbled around the door handle leading to the boys room as I opened it, hurriedly settling myself down on my arm chair and prizing it open. It was nearing 1 in the morning so I knew that Ben would almost definitely still be awake. That was, if he hadn't settled in for an early night with Claude. Even if he had, their sex life would have to wait.

'Are you going to tell us why you ran off like you were possessed?' Jack asked, leaning over my shoulder as I brought up Skype. I glared at him and he backed off a little as the others came to crowd around me too.

'No. I'm saying in case I'm wrong.' 

'That's the first time you've ever admitted that you might actually be wrong.' Merritt said with a grin. I scowled at him out of the corner of my eye, waiting for Ben's face to appear on the screen. If he was busy making out with Claude right now then I was going to give him hell. 

'I'm 90% sure I'm right.' I said firmly, flexing my fingers. Where the hell was Ben? Was he out? Was - 

'Hey! You okay?' I let out a sigh of relief as Ben pulled the laptop closer to him and ran a hand through his hair. Behind him was the ballroom, so I gathered that the laptop was on the top of the piano. Had he even moved it?

'Yeah. I'm fine - ' I knew that Dylan was probably itching just to grab the laptop from my hands and shout to Ben about all the reasons why I wasn't fine. To his credit, he didn't but I could see the way he shifted out of the corner of my eye. 'You know Mom's picture? The one that's been in the attic for about 10 years because there was no where to put it but she didn't want to throw it away? Can you get it for me?'

I needed to physically see it and compare it with the one from the museum that Aaru's men didn't end up stealing. In my mind they were similar, but I'd have to see them side by side to be sure.

'What? Why?' 

'Because I need it.' I said, ignoring the quizzical looks the horsemen were shooting me and the frown that had come across Ben's face. 

'The last time we talked, you said nothing about needing mom's picture probably been eaten by moths by now.' Just because we'd had a moth infestation that one time, he couldn't seem to let it go. 

'Moths don't eat paintings.' I said with a roll of my eyes and Ben glared at me. I bit my lip. 'Please?' 

'Not until you tell me what's going on over there and why you need it.' My mouth dropped open and I let out a groan. Really? Ben wanted to do this now? When I was exhausted and in desperate need of a shower? But then Ben didn't know that and I didn't need to. 

'Why are you being such an ass?' I moaned and Ben started grinning. 

'Because my baby sister is another country and I can tell that she's not been telling me the truth.' 

'How do you know that?' I said, leaning forward in my chair and raising an eyebrow. 

'Because if you were doing what you told me you were doing, then you wouldn't need to look at an old painting. I thought you said you were stopping a painting from being stolen?' 

I wasn't going to get anywhere until I saw that painting and to see the painting I needed Ben to get it for me. I looked up at Dylan and he shrugged, smiling slightly. God, I hated Ben sometimes. I dropped my head into my hands.

'It would be a lot easier to explain what's going on when I inevitably end up with a black eye.' I mumbled. 

'Black eye? What?' It was time to cut the crap.

'Aaru's here.' I didn't know exactly how Ben would react. Would he demand I come home? Come out to Paris himself to knock him around a bit? He didn't do either of these things, he just look up and sighed at me.

'Of course he is. And he's after you?'

'Actually no, for once. I still don't know how to feel about that but anyway. A couple of his men have been following me but then they backed off because I set his car on fire and then I followed him into an alley, shot him in the shoulder, saved Danny's life and now here we are.' 

Ben didn't speak. The tension in the room was palpable along with the silence. That was a pretty comprehensive summary of what had happened over the last few days but I didn't think this what Ben had been hoping to hear. He knew that what I was doing wasn't void of its dangers but I doubted he'd imagined I would have been capable of getting up to all that in a number of days. 

'It's not even worth my energy telling you how stupid you've been is it? Because you'll just say it was for the purpose of the mission - ' 

'Yep. You can use that energy rooting around in the attic for my painting.'

'But your mission - ' 

'Has changed direction.' I cut him off. 'Now, chop chop and find my painting - ' Ben gave me a disapproving roll of his eyes before pushing himself out of his chair. 

'Give me a minute. Or 10.' He disappeared from the screen and I leaned back against the chair, brushing some hair from my face. What if I was wrong after all this? No, I couldn't be. The brushstrokes were too similar just to be a coincidence. 

'Are you going to tell us what your big idea is now?' Jack said bluntly. 'Because I'm running out of plausible guesses.' 

'I need to see it first.' 

'See what? A painting that has been gathering dust for a decade?' Yes, that one.

'It was my mom's. She brought it home from work, I think - ' 

'She worked for the FBI. Why the hell was she bringing paintings home?' I sighed and rubbed at my eyes with my fingers. Did Jack ever just stop asking questions? 

'I don't know, okay! I was a kid at the time, she must have got it from the basement of some drug dealer or something and taken a fancy to it. I don't know because Dad hated it so much and so we never put it up - and because we didn't have any wall space.' This seemed to satisfy Jack's incessant craving for answers, at least for the moment.

I looked over at Dylan whose brows were furrowed and had a pensive look on his face. He caught me staring. 'What?'

'Ben took all that surprising well.' I said lightly and he cracked a smile. 'He knows how crazy I am by now. He knows better than to argue.' 

'So - ' I jolted back from my laptop as Ben suddenly re-appeared on the screen, dust smudging his face and his hair disheveled. 'I'm back. And I've got it - ' 

'Hold there - ' I told him, reaching for my cell to take a picture of the painting before leaning closer to the screen. I hadn't physically seen the painting for almost 2 years, which was the last time we'd had a proper clear-out of the attic. But as my danced across the screen, taking in the colours and textures and brushstrokes I knew that my idea had been right. This was what everything was boiling down to.

'I'm right.' I breathed, a triumphant smile appearing on my face for a split second.

'Good for you. Think you can explain what's going on now?' Lula asked blankly and I nodded. I wasn't sure even I had all the pieces joined together perfectly yet but I was getting there. I was buzzing with excited energy; I knew what he was doing. We were onto him. 

'Hold onto your hats because it's going to get a little complicated - ' 

'Great.' Merritt said with a roll of his eyes, physically adjusting the hat that was still sat on his head. Did the man ever take it off? 

'I've been wondering for a while why such a small painting is worth so much money - ' I started. 

'This is the painting from the museum?' I nodded. 

'And after reading in one of those art books that artists would sometimes make lots of little works that could all be combined into one big picture, I thought that maybe that's what was happening here.'

'That seems like too much effort - ' Lula complained, resting her head on Dylan's shoulder.

'It makes them easier to distribute and also means they're less likely to be damaged in transit. But this one - ' I gestured back to the computer screen where Ben was still listening intently. 'Is part of the set. I think. But unlike the one in the museum, this one is real.'

'Hang on, how does all of this link back to Aaru? Was that a bust after all?' 

'I'm getting to that. The paintings are small so they're easy to transport. They'll be handled with care because they have a 4 figure price tag attached and because they're paintings, there is a massive market for fakes and a high volume of them too. Aaru doesn't care much about art but he does care about trafficking.'

'He traffics drugs all the time.' Ben suddenly added in, as though everyone hadn't gathered this already. 

'So he's trafficking drugs?' Dylan mused aloud and I shook my head.

'I don't think so. I don't think he'd go to all this effort to do that; he's doing perfectly well trafficking drugs from Washington Heights without the need of a thousand dollar painting. So I was thinking about my mom's last official case and how she got to own the painting - ' 

'Oh, I know what it is.' Ben gloated, a grin appearing on his face and I glared at him. 

'Shut up, this is my big reveal - ' I shot back at him, before whipping back to face the horsemen. 

'THEY WERE TRAFFICKING DIAMONDS!' Ben's voice echoed from the laptop and I didn't even care about the looks on the horsemen's faces. I was too busy thinking about how I could punish Ben for ruining my big moment.

'For fuck's sake, did you really have to do that?' I whined. 'That was going to be my dramatic reveal!' Ben shrugged, the largest smirk I'd ever seen on his face. 

'Too late, slow poke.' I was going to kill him when I got home. I had not spent the last few days racking my brains about this to have Ben snatch my victory from underneath me and dangle it in front of my face. No. He was going to get it later.

'Yes, they were trafficking diamonds that were hidden in the backs of paintings. And while art might not be Aaru's thing, diamonds most definitely are.'


	48. 47

I flopped onto my back, letting out a frustrated sigh and staring up at the patterns that swirled across the ceiling. Dylan had sent us all to bed an hour ago seeing as it was the early hours of the morning but I'd known from the moment I'd scrubbed the make-up off my face that I didn't plan on getting any sleep tonight. My mind was too hyper-active in trying to figure out what the next stage of our plan should be.

Because it was all well and good knowing that Aaru was trafficking diamonds through paintings, but that didn't get us any closer to stopping him. Or from figuring out why the paintings needed to be authentic - this was more of a personal one but I knew a fake had never stopped him before from taking it and selling it on as the real thing, no matter what it was. 

My mom was also involved, somehow. I refused to believe that she had simply ended up taking that painting home, days before she was killed, for the painting to show up now in another of Aaru's games. I needed to find out what happened in those days; I was going to have to re-trace her steps to figure this thing out and that was a prospect that filled me with both dread and conviction.

I turned to look over at Lula's sleeping form, her legs tangled up in the sheets. Of course she reminded me of Claude, when she was the only woman in this male-dominated world. I might not be as close to her as I was with Claude but when someone sees you completely break down and sprawl on the floor in front of them, like what had happened today, then there had to be some kind of trust and respect going on. I didn't just break down in front of anyone.

No, unfortunately for me I usually broke down in front of the people that I cared about the most and consequently caused them the most pain. Or maybe that was just because the only people who really knew about my issues with Aaru were the ones that were closest to me.

And now a group of magicians, whom I was becoming strangely fond of. Some more fond of than others...

I sighed again and rubbed at my eyes with my hands. I had to at least try and get some sleep otherwise I'd be a walking zombie when I actually needed to resemble a living, functioning person. I also didn't particularly want to pump myself full of caffeine in order to stay awake. That definitely wouldn't help my ability to keep a grip on things. 

I wasn't going to let Aaru control me in my sleeping moments as well as my awake ones. I needed to push him from my mind. Maybe I really should think about Danny? At least then I wouldn't be having nightmares. But it really would be counterproductive because I'd end up staying awake all night thinking about him anyway...

God...this whole 'life' thing was difficult...  
***  
The next time I opened my eyes, faint streams of light were following through the semi-open curtains and I had to throw an arm over my eyes to stop the sun from blinding me. I could hear the murmuring of voices coming from somewhere nearby but I was too drowsy to figure out who was speaking or what they were saying. 

I turned over, aimlessly grabbing at my cell that was on the nightstand next to me as I noticed that Lula was no longer tucked up in her bed. Was she one of the voices that I could hear talking? Probably.

I groggily pushed myself onto my forearms and heaved my legs out of bed, running a hand through my tangled hair as I did so. I padded out into the main area of the room, surprised to see Lula fully dressed and sat with the rest of the horsemen around the dining table. The table was littered with paper and coffee cups and what looked like rubbish, as it normally was.

At least all of the horsemen were wearing the same expression, even Danny who I never usually saw being anything less than 100% alert; they were all torn between that all-consuming sense of exhaustion and the hyper-activity of the caffeine running through their veins. 

I clumsily slumped down into the chair that was next to Dylan, reaching for an apple from the fruit bowl and nodding in Merritt's direction as he gestured to the batch of coffee. Whatever all of the paper was for, I knew it was going to take more energy than I currently had to get me through it.

Danny was sat across from me, leafing through some paper and trying to hide a yawn whilst he did so. Despite his usual deep gray sweater, I could see that his hair was more ruffled than normal and his eyes were looking a little watery. 

God. I had a problem, didn't I?

'What's all this then?' I asked, smiling as Merritt passed me a coffee cup. 'What's the plan?' I watched him down the rest of his coffee and shoot me a tired but warm look.

'We're heading back to Washington Heights so you'd better get packing.' 

***  
Within 3 hours, I was crammed back up against the window with Jack snoring next to me and Merritt lightly kicking at my seat from behind me. Dylan was sat in the isle seat, attempting to keep his voice as quiet as possible so not to wake Jack while he explained to me just what he'd been planning over night and why exactly we were now heading back home.

He'd already told me that he had Ben and Claude on board with his plan, after contacting them last night when we'd all returned to our beds. It seemed that they'd decided the only way they could make sure I was safe and not getting myself killed in completing my stupid plans was to join me in them. But that only meant I now had to worry about them, as well as the horsemen and, arguably, myself. 

However, I also knew that the plan was going to be difficult and probably dangerous and that we needed all the help we could get. How the horsemen had been able to pull of some of their previous escapes with only the 4, or 5, of them was something I was still struggling to understand. 

Now I had something else to get my head around - that apparently it wasn't just a whim of Aaru's to traffic diamonds that were hidden inside paintings. A quick internet search this morning had brought up hundreds of examples of other people doing the same thing - it seemed to be something of a trend. And the ideal paintings to hide diamonds in happened to be those that were small, just like my mom's painting.

Aaru had gone to the Louvre expecting to steal the painting and hadn't because, I'd initially thought, because it wasn't real. But now, because we knew what was really going on, I was beginning to reconsider that theory. What if it was because Aaru knew of the hidden diamonds and was searching for them before they could be transported on to wherever they were going? He'd thought that they were hidden in that painting but they weren't.

And that meant they were still out there, somewhere and Aaru was looking for them. We needed to get to them before he did; he really didn't need an extra 3 million dollars in the bank.

I turned round in my seat to glare at Merritt, the stack of books on his lap clearly not doing enough to keep himself entertained. Since we'd booked the flight so last minute, Danny and Lula were sat somewhere near the front of the plane and while this meant Merritt now turned to me to be his entertainment source, at least I wouldn't get distracted by Danny's hair. 

I shifted back into my seat, re-crossing my legs and turning to look out of the window. The bundle of nerves was still fizzing in my stomach but the sky was clear and bright with no signs of turbulence and, so far, I was managing to keep my nerves at flying deep inside of me. 

The new plan was to try and lure out whoever had the painting that contained the diamonds Aaru was so busy searching for. We'd all been busy searching the countless art-dealing sites that the horsemen were familiar with for anything that resembled the kind of painting that could be harboring diamonds. So far, we'd found nothing which had kind of killed the mood.

But then, because we were all tired and frustrated and clutching at straws was something I excelled in, I'd began to think even more - what if whoever had the diamonds needed a painting in order to traffic them on? They needed to buy a painting in order to hide the diamonds and we just happened to have a painting - my mom's. And thus began the crazy plan.

We were basically going to be staging an art auction and Dylan had already contacted one of the fanciest hotels in New York about booking out their entire suite to hold the event. Hopefully, we would be able to draw out whoever had the diamonds and then interrupt the sale of the painting, steal the diamonds and take them back to whoever they truly belonged to. 

I knew the plan was crazy, my mind had been telling me that for the last 2 hours. But it also sounded strangely doable...I really needed a good night's sleep.

Jack suddenly let out an obnoxiously loud snore, tossing his arm across my arm rest. I rolled my eyes and gently moved his arm back into his own seat. I wished I could do what he could - not the loud snoring thing - but to have the ability to put everything I had into my work and then flip a switch and turn it all off and not constantly think about. Or maybe he did constantly think about it and had just developed his ability to ignore it.

I knew that in about 6 hours I would be seeing Ben and Claude again and nothing else seemed to matter; the art auction could wait, Aaru could wait, Danny could wait. The fact that I would be seeing them again in a matter of hours made me happier than I ever thought possible but the knowledge of what we were going to do be doing made me pause. This was bigger than my role in Paris, which had simply been to swan around and look pretty. This was serious.

This was real.

We would be mixing with dangerous and ruthless criminals, pure and simple, and the whole thing was being based off my assumptions. If I was wrong, well, I didn't even want to think about the number of lives I was putting on the line. 

I had to do it, though. I just had to. I couldn't back out now; my heart was too invested in it. I was going to do it for my mom; she spent most of her entire life dedicated to catching people like Aaru and I wasn't going to let her down.


	49. 48

The plane had landed less than 2 hours ago and the dining table was already laden with pens, maps of Washington Heights and empty coffee cups. These guys really didn't seem to have an off switch. They never seemed to take a break but I could get on board with that - we had a goal set firmly in our minds now and the quicker we got moving towards that goal, the better.

But firstly, I wanted to unpack all of my things. My brain felt far too cluttered when almost all my possessions were crammed into the suitcase that had been flung onto my bed. I needed to organize my surroundings before starting on anything else.

It had been strange walking through the doors of the ballroom again, more than strange. Not only had I been glad of the sense of familiarity that had come over me but I'd also began to feel a lot calmer and composed than I ever had in Paris. Maybe that was just because we were closer to finally catching Aaru now for good? Or maybe that was because I didn't have to worry about getting lost anymore? Everything was sliding back into the routine that I'd come to learn over the last 27 years.

Did that make me hopelessly boring and predictable? Probably. One of those silly self-help manuals would probably tell me that I needed to widen my horizons and not let myself get stuck in a rut. But was it worth widening my horizons when I ended up having a panic attack?

Of course, that wasn't all horizons. That had just been because I'd been pursuing the particular horizon that involved Aaru  
and possibly everyone around me being killed.

And to top everything off, Ben had gotten the roof fixed. It might have cost him an arm and a leg and he'd been seconds away from pushing the guy out the door and giving it another go himself, but it was finally fixed and my room had dried out and that meant no more sharing with Danny. 

Because I wasn't blessed with hindsight. Now sharing with Danny seemed like a pretty okay deal.

I began slowly unpacking my bag, replacing my unworn clothes in my drawers and taking my worn clothes to the laundry. The flight must have been rougher than I'd felt because my purse had been tossed around my case, euros seeming to fall out of every pocket. I hadn't spent nearly as many as Ben had given me and that meant they could go straight back into the money pot.

Should I have enjoyed Paris a little more, forced myself to? Spent a little more money and valued my time there, rather than panicking and checking over my shoulder with every step I took?

I sighed, running a hand through my hair as I re-crossed my legs on the floor. Why was it that you only began regretting something once it was over?

It might have been slightly terrifying not knowing every face that I met in the street and every inch of every alley but it had been kind of refreshing to inhale some new experiences for once. Anyway...

I looked up as the door to my room was pushed open and Claude stepped into my room. She'd had a slight haircut from the last time I'd seen her; it had only been a couple of days and it was kind of shocking to think about how much could change in that short space of time. 

She plopped onto my bed, kicking her legs off the end and shooting me a grin. When we'd arrived, the first thing we'd been greeted with had been Ben and Claude stood in the middle of the floor kissing each other's faces off despite it being a Thursday afternoon and they were supposed to be cleaning the theatre because that was always what we did on a Thursday afternoon. 

'How you doing?'

'I'm nearly done really.' Claude reached for my sunglasses and set them elegantly on the top of her head - they were cheap and made of plastic and I'd picked them up from the mall almost 3 years ago, but Claude had a way of making anything look stylish. I put it down to the Mexican coloring that she'd inherited from her mom. 'I washed most of it using the machines at the hotel - ' 

'As any smart, intuitive human does.' Claude finished and I smiled. I'd missed this, even if this was nothing special. Just talking with her and knowing that I didn't have to pretend around her. 

'Oh look, what's this?' I said, suddenly bursting into a grin as I pulled a lump of felt from my bag and passed it to her. Her face lit up as she took it from me and she instantly ran to the mirror, styling the red beret over the top of her messy bun.

I'd completely forgotten about my promise to her, what with my head being filled with nothing but thoughts of Aaru and staying alive for the last few days. I'd been forced to the take to the shops in the airport and had ran around for a good half hour trying to find a colour that I thought she'd like. Jack had insisted on coming with me for moral support and by the time we'd re-joined the others, he'd looked ready to drop with exhaustion.

'I love it! I love it so much, thank you!' Claude squealed, as she twirled around in front of the mirror, posing as she did so. 'And - ' She spun around to face me, her eyes instantly narrowing when she locked them on me. 'Did you get it from the airport?'

Crap. How did she know that? I was going to have to lie. I couldn't tell her that I'd completely forgotten about what - 

'Maybe.' I murmured quietly, watching Claude burst into a smirk and roll her eyes. 

'It's okay; I still love it. And you were busy getting a break which is exactly what you needed. There's nothing like the beautiful architecture and atmosphere of Paris to calm someone right down.' 

'A 'break'?' I looked at her pointedly. 'Did Ben really not tell you anything about what happened?' There was absolutely no way that Ben had kept what I'd told him over Skype a secret. Absolutely no way. 

'Okay, fine. While you were running around after Aaru and setting cars on fire and fawning over Danny.' My suitcase slipped from my grip as I heaved it back into the corner of my room, shooting Claude a sharp glare from over my shoulder.

'What was that last one? I think you need to get your eyes tested and backtrack a little.' 

'I could see it.' Claude chimed in a sing-song voice, flopping back down onto my bed and rolling onto her front. 'The way you kept looking at him out of the corner of your eye when you weren't talking.' 

'I was looking at all of them.' 

'You weren't looking at Dylan like you wanted to go and kiss him and hug him and tear his clothes off.' 

'That's because Dylan is an old friend and that would be very weird.' I pushed on, ignoring the smirk on Claude's face. Maybe if I just ignored her, she'd go on to talk about something else.

'It's the way I look at Ben...' She continued, seeming to be able to read my mind and I hated it because I knew that her words were true. I didn't want them to be true because relationships were a weakness, something that could be used against you, something that always ended with someone getting hurt.

'I don't want to deal with this right now, Claude - ' I murmured, turning back to face her. She pushed herself onto her knees and patted the space next to her, which I begrudgingly moved into.

I was okay for me to think it and deny it to myself but once someone else recognized the signs, that was when everything suddenly started feeling all the more real - that was when I started to panic.

'I know you'd rather deny it to yourself and that's okay.' Claude said calmly, taking hold of my hand. 'But if what you're feeling is real, and you're the only one who knows that, then that's okay too.' I couldn't cope with the wholly honest and sincere look that was in her eyes that had her feelings of warmth practically shining out of her like glass.

I sighed and looked down at our conjoined hands. I shrugged, hopelessly. I'd had this conversation in my head about a thousand times already.

'He's a famous magicians who travels around the world and is in a different city practically every week. He has billions of girls that are interested in him - '

'I'm not sure that's quite accurate...' Claude murmured jokingly.

'He has entire fan forums dedicated to his hair. And no, that's not weird, because you know Ben and I Googled them all thoroughly when we agreed to let them stay. I'm nothing like them. I've been out of my home state once in my life and that was literally a couple of days ago. I'm - ' 

'You are too pessimistic.' Claude said firmly, cutting me off. 'You think too long term and worry too much. You need to just let things happen and not overthink them.' 

'I'm not very good at that.' I mumbled and Claude rolled her eyes because no shit, we both knew that. 

'Practice makes perfect.' She said with a smile and a shrug. 'And there's no better time to start than right now.' 

\- Thanks so much for reading! Do you think Margot will listen to Claude's advice? Will someone finally make a move?


	50. 49

By the time I returned downstairs, the operation was fully underway. Not only had Dylan confirmed the venue, but he'd also now started advertising the event on all the online auction sites that our unsuspecting thief could be trawling through. Jack and Lula had also been advertising it across social media, creating fake profiles and everything else that went along with it. 

Dylan assured us that it wasn't the quantity of the adverts but the quality - diamonds being trafficked in the back of paintings was a story that went back years and our thief would be on the look-out for what we were offering. While everyone else was busy with this, I'd been doing a little more researching and the first reported case of trafficking in this way had come from someone stealing diamonds from the Queen of Denmark before hiding them in a painting and shipping them across to America to be sold. 

Apparently.

I didn't know whether I believed the whole 'stolen crown jewels' thing but nevertheless, it was clear Aaru wasn't the first person who wanted to make some money from trafficking diamonds hidden inside paintings. It was a bold move for him, seeing as he usually stuck to drugs and guns, but for whatever reason he wanted to branch out.

We just had to make sure that he didn't get his hands on them. Him and no one else. I hadn't come all this way for nothing.

Once the websites were up and running, we turned our attentions to figuring out the set-up of the hotel. Danny had begun to assemble a blueprint of the hotel based of the floor plan they offered online and the answers they'd given him when he'd started asking about access points and security cameras. Any suspicions they'd had as to why he was asking them this had been pushed away, presumably by the price tag that Dylan had waved in their faces and had promised he would pay if everything went off without a hitch.

Everything had better go off without a hitch. I didn't think I'd be able to cope if another plan went up in smoke and we were left picking up the pieces again.

Everyone was going to be set up around the hotel, with different vantage points and objectives. But just when we were starting to figure out everybody's roles, Danny threw a spanner in the works.

'Wait, Aaru knows what we all look like though, doesn't he? He certainly knows you three - ' He gestured towards myself, Ben and Claude, 'and he knows me and if he's done any amount of research then he'll know Jack, Lula, Merritt and Dylan too. As soon as he sees us, he's going to know that something's up.' 

Shit. I bit my lip. That was true, there was no way any one of us would be able to slip under the radar if we walked through the doors as ourselves. And I didn't want to give Aaru any suspicion that we were the ones behind the auction, if he did decide to show up which I knew he would do. 

Claude was watching me out of the corner of her eye, smirking to herself. I raised an eyebrow at her. 'This is a theatre.' She said with a shrug, as her idea suddenly hit me in the face. How had I not thought of that? Was I really getting more oblivious as the days continued? I needed to shape myself. 

'Don't worry about that.' I promised. 'By the time Claude and I are finished with you, your own mother's won't be able to recognize you.' Everyone shared a look of sheer terror, Ben shooting me a rueful smile because he knew just what they were all in for and he'd lived in the theatre too long to be scared by make-up and wigs anymore.

I was going to have to dig out where the wig we'd dubbed the 'Marilyn Monroe' one was hiding, because that was the only wig that I'd ever found that could actually hide my hair. 

'That's one problem sorted, then.' Dylan said, scratching at his head before turning back towards the blueprint that Danny had laid out over the table. 'So this is what I was thinking: Ben and Claudia can be waiters - ' Claude let out a dramatic sigh from where she was stood next to me and folded her arms. 

'Why do I never get to dress up?' She whined. 'I'm always the waitress...' 

'From what I saw from the website, even the waiters get to look fancy.' I murmured to her, watching the finger that was curling around a lock of her hair still for a moment as she considered this. The Davendorf was a very fancy hotel, so fancy that none of us had ever stepped foot inside and from the few pictures I got to see, the black and white uniforms of the waiters looked pretty smart.

'I also think that we need someone in the band so obviously I was thinking Margot - ' 

'No.' Dylan looked slightly shocked as I shook my head. 'The one thing I can't disguise is my voice. He'll know that it's me. Ben or Claude could do it?'

'No, I need them on the floor.' Dylan said thoughtfully, running a finger over his lip. 'Atlas will have to play piano.' 

What. 

Was he serious? Danny could play piano?

Danny rolled his eyes and stiffly nodded. Merritt grimaced, as though Danny at the piano wasn't an enticing thought, and Danny threw a kick at him.

I never would have even guessed, aside from the time I'd seen him sat there. I knew that he was the nerdy type and I would have hazarded a guess that he could play chess, but never the piano. 

'You play?' He nodded, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt cuffs. Was he looking a little sheepish or was that just me? 

'Yeah, I'm...pretty decent, actually.' 

'So that's that.' Dylan continued, before myself and Ben could start asking him the questions that we were itching to. 'Danny's in the band instead of Margot. But I still need someone to help me lead the auction.' 

'You've been reading all of those art books - ' Jack said pointedly. All made it sound like I'd read an entire library. I'd barely read 2. And done a lot of extra internet-searching but that didn't count.

'Really?' Ben tsked, rolling his eyes.

'What?' I shot back, defensively. 

'You're such a nerd.' He mumbled with a smile and I glared at him. 'When you go on holiday to Paris, you spend most of your time reading.' 

'Not all my time. And anyway, just because I read 2 art books doesn't mean I can blag my way through an art auction, let's be serious.' 

'Yes she can.' Ben interrupted. I really wanted to hit him. 'She'll do it, moving on, next question - ' 

'Fine.' Ben was grinning like an idiot and I stuck my tongue out at him. This was all going to blow up in our faces because there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to fake my way through an art sale.

But I was going to have to; there was no other alternative than this operation going smoothly. No plan B. Nada. Nothing. 

'So that means Lula and Jack will be going as guests and Merritt as an usher.' The horsemen didn't react to his announcement, meaning it was probably a regular plan that Dylan put into place. Everyone seemed satisfied with their roles - or could at least put up with them - and as Lula started going through the blueprint and quizzing Danny on every single window, my mind began to wander which was what it normally did when I was nervous. 

The plan was set. Everything was controlled and stable and was going to fine and yet it still felt like there were just so many things that could go wrong. We had to stop the person with the diamonds from buying a painting that they could use to traffic them, or from just flat-out stealing the painting because I knew that was always an option. We didn't need another criminal going around with millions of extra pounds in their pocket.

Also, and this was what was hitting me like a dagger in my chest, if we failed then that would be my mom's painting gone into the hands of a crook. And while up until this moment, it may have been nothing more than a cheap painting that we kept in the attic that reminded us of mom, now it was so much more than that.

Potentially, it was the key to everything. We couldn't let it fall into the wrong hands.

***  
Anyone who hadn't been involved with theatre for as long as I had might have thought the scraps of fluff and felt that I was sifting through were just rubbish and should be thrown out, but myself and Claude knew differently. The scraps of fluff had the ability to change someone's entire appearance and, with the right tools, could transform from just scraps of fluff into pretty realistic looking facial hair. 

After going through the cupboards and finding where we'd put them since the last time we'd used them, I'd sent Danny, Merritt and Lula out to the costume shop we always used to buy some more brunette mustaches and facial glue. We happened to have a lot of blonde mustaches but none that would match with Danny, Jack and Dylan's hair color. I supposed we could have used a blonde wig instead but the idea of Danny as a blond just made me smirk.

In the meantime, Claude and myself had been going through the selection of wigs and picking out ones we thought would be useful. Claude was still wearing the long red wig as she dug through the costume rails in the storeroom next door, the wig we'd dubbed the 'Jessica Rabbit' wig. Ben was a particular fan of it and I'd lost count of the number of types I'd teased him for blushing at the sight of Claude as a redhead. Apparently it was a kink of his.

I, on the other hand, was wearing the 'Marilyn Monroe' wig that I always reached for. It took a bit of getting used to, looking into the mirror and seeing a blonde-haired girl staring back but I quickly adjusted. It was all part of the magic of theatre.

Would Aaru be able to recognize me? I always got told my hair was my most prominent feature but Aaru wasn't blind. What if he saw through everything?

I suddenly heard loud voices coming from the direction of the floor, and a laugh which definitely sounded like Lula. I gently pulled off the wig and placed it down on the counter, before pushing myself to my feet and maneuvering out of the room. It might be messy and cluttered but it was organized chaos. At least that was what I told myself.

'They're all the fake mustaches we could find.' Lula said as I entered, sat on the top of the piano with a soda in her hand. 'We cleared the store out.' 

'Jack's only going to have half a goatee at this rate.' I said with a sigh, looking through what they'd bought. It was barely half of what I'd asked for but I was just going to have to make it work, somehow. 

'What a shame.' Danny drawled, smirking clearly at the idea of Jack with a mustache. He could wipe that smirk right off his face - I was going to have to go all out in order to hide him from Aaru. He'd been held at gunpoint and punched in the chest. I figured Aaru had got a pretty good look at his face.

'I'll do my best. At least I've got the wigs sorted. The last thing you want is a scratchy wig, especially if you have no hair,' 

'Excuse me?' 

'A wig will be the best way to disguise you.' I replied to Merritt's startled face. 'It won't look stupid, I promise.' 

'Merritt doesn't have much experience with hair.' Danny teased. 'It's a foreign realm for him - ' 

'Can you even grow a mustache? Have your pubescent hormones even got to that point?' 

Oh boy. It seemed that me and Claude had our jobs cut out and it wasn't even because we had to make the mustaches and wigs look realistic. The hardest part was going to be to get them to wear the damn things.


	51. 50

That night, I slept like a log. It was almost funny how glad I was to be back in my own bed and how good it felt to be back among my sheets. Even my nerves about Aaru and the auction and everything else that was happening didn't keep me from sleep. I was able to feel completely at peace for the first time in a while.

The next morning, however, was a completely different story.

My overly organized mind was beginning to panic because I hadn't practiced everyone's disguise yet and didn't know whether they were going to look realistic or entirely ridiculous; I only had the image of what they were going to look like in my head but the reality could be completely different.

I dragged Claude and Ben into the make-up/costume/wig room first because they were used to it and didn't wriggle around as I glued the felt pieces onto his face (Ben) or secured her wig with about a hundred thousand pins (Claude). 

Of course, as soon as Claude's wig was on I started teasing Ben about the looks he was shooting her. He elbowed me in the ribs as he passed on his way out and I rolled my eyes. He was so predictable sometimes.

Next in the chair was Dylan and honestly, he wasn't too bad. He was supposed to be the 'professional' of the group though, so that may have had something to do with the rigidity that he sat with as I glued the mustache above his lip. The mustache, coupled with a pair of dark sunglasses and a hat, made him look completely different to his usual self. I hoped Aaru wouldn't give him so much as a second glance.

Jack, on the other hand, was a completely different matter. It was as though he thought I was trying to electrocute him, the way he wriggled whenever the glue touched his face which, in turn, caused it to go everywhere. And, of course the other horsemen gathered round him to tease him about how he'd faked his own death but couldn't even handle some glue and felt. 

I'd watched the whole Jack-is-dead-but-he's-not debacle on TV and had nearly dropped the pasta bake I'd been holding at the time in shock. But anyway.

The horsemen were sprawled out on the couches that, for some reason, we kept in the room as well as the spare costumes, wigs and make-up. I was fairly certain Lula was filming the whole thing to use as blackmail material. 

Claude looked like she wanted to slap him - she didn't have a particularly large amount of patience, especially in the morning. That was something else that I'd missed about her, despite how it had gotten us into some trouble in the past.

'Look - ' I dropped the tube of glue onto the counter and glared at Jack's reflection in the mirror. 'If you keep wriggling around then I'm just going to leave it but then we can all blame you when we get found out and this entire plan goes completely pear-shaped.' 

'Just, why would you want to mess with perfection?' Jack sighed, shrugging at me as he gave a wry smile. I rolled my eyes.

'If that perfection happens to be the very recognisable face of Jack Wilder, who died and came back to life on the news and even Aaru who barely knows what a TV looks like, will be able to recognize, then yes they do need to mess with it.' I said bluntly and Jack started pouting. Honestly...

'Stop being a wimp, we haven't got all day - ' Danny complained from the sofa, where Lula was half-sat, half-lying on him in order to sit down. 

'Wait till it's your turn, Atlas,' Jack started, turning around in the chair. 'And you're being prodded and poked and having hair stuck to your face.' 

'Some people don't have to imagine, Jacky-boy.' Merritt drawled. 'It's called growing a beard.' 

'Which is something you have a lot of experience with, is it?' Danny added, with a smirk. 

I was actually feeling slightly nervous about having Danny in the chair, mainly because the last time we had been so close was when we were sharing a bed, and I sort of hated him then. Now, I definitely didn't hate him and low-key wanted to touch his hair and I had to somehow touch his face without my breathing becoming erratic and my hands shaking. 

Easy.

I straightened up as Jack took an overly deep, deep breath and looked over at Danny. He was scrolling through his phone, and I was willing to bet on my life that he was going over the blueprint of the hotel that he'd taken a picture of or going through the plan that Dylan had outlined and emailed to everyone just so we couldn't blame a lapse in our memory in everything going wrong.

'Ready?' Jack nodded and Claude gave me a dry look as she handed me the tube of face glue. If he started wriggling this time, then Claude was going to fucking deck him. This was the 3rd time we'd tried it, and even my patient was beginning to wear a little thin. It was glue, it wasn't going to hurt him. 'Are you really going through those again?' I asked, gesturing to Danny's phone to break the silence as the whole room seemed to hold it's breath. So far, Jack hadn't tried to make a break for it so that was promising.

'Is that a problem? We need to pull this thing off tomorrow and we can't let anything go wrong. It's not like diamonds are involved or anything, diamonds that are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.' 

'You need to chill out, man.' Lula assured from next to him, stretching her legs out so they were waving in his face. 'Everything's going to be fine.' 

The glue was finally on Jack's face without smudging and I winked over at Claude as she handed me the mustache. We might be able to actually do it this time.

'Don't remind me about tomorrow.' Claude murmured as she did so and I furrowed my brows. She shrugged. 'I'm not a criminal or magician or a thief. I don't know what I'm doing.'

'But you get to wear the Jessica Rabbit wig - ' I pointed out, as I applied some glue to the underside of the mustache. 'And none of us are criminals, this is all new. Well, I mean - ' 

'No, you're not a criminal.' She hissed almost viciously at me, Jack jerking to the side as she startled him. Thankfully, the glue on his face hadn't budged. 'You're not, Margot.' 

'Even if you did kind of commit arson.' Danny suddenly piped up and I glared at him. 

'It was self defense. He was stalking me.' 

'Hey, you're not one to talk, Danny boy.' Merritt continued, using the same nickname as earlier. 'You've practically been a criminal for years, breaking all those girls' - and guys' - hearts. All they wanted was a photo - ' 

'And fixing all those chess tournaments.' Lula teased, counting off Danny's supposed 'crimes'. And all your crimes against the fashion police because that red shirt was not a good look. And -' 

'Shut up.' Danny mumbled, just as the door was pushed open and Ben stepped inside, his face grave. I felt my hand still. 

'Aaru's men were loitering across the road. I couldn't really see their - ' 

'Was he with them?'

'No.' 

'You sure?' I was getting antsy. The stress wasn't helping. But I wasn't about to back out now. That meant he'd as good as won, even if he didn't have the diamonds and didn't try to steal the painting.

'Yes.' Ben said, his eyes narrowing. 'Are you sure that he doesn't know your involved with this auction?'

'Even if he does, he won't be able to pick me out of a line up when I'm in - ' 

'I'm getting worried, Margot. I'm not about to go through with this if you're going to be in any form of danger or if there's a chance that you're going to freak out - ' 

'Freak out?' My voice was sharp and scathing. I saw Ben's eyes widen a little as he tried to backtrack. Was that what he thought? That I could control when I 'freaked out'? That I knew exactly what would set me off ahead of time and could plan and prepare for it? Really? Because if so, we needed to have a conversation.

'Look, I didn't mean it like that but - ' 

'But what? Is that really what you think? That I can control this?' 

'Marge...' He pleaded but I turned back to Jack. The poor guy had been sat in the chair for a while now and probably wanted nothing more than to just leave. But no one else in the room, bar Claude, seemed to even be acknowledging our conversation. They all looked like that they wanted to slip through the walls like a ghost.

'I'm busy.' I said frostily, picking up the goatee, 'and even if he does know I'm involved, which he doesn't, I don't care. I'm not going as Margot so it shouldn't even matter. I'm going as Lorna Appleton, Art Critic, and she doesn't 'freak out' randomly so I think we'll all be fine.' 

Merritt visibly winced.


	52. 51

I didn't really speak to Ben for the rest of the day, under the guise that I was too busy sorting out everybody's wigs and facial hair. This was partly true but I definitely didn't have to spend a good hour swamped in old costumes and props and figuring out which ones needed to be repaired. By the time I'd tidied up the room again, showered and washed my hair, Ben had shut himself away at the front desk in the foyer. 

None of the others had mentioned anything about it but I knew that they'd noticed the tension that was hanging between us. It wasn't exactly difficult to detect. I knew that Ben had only been looking out for me but I'd been stuck in this sort of eternal purgatory for I didn't know how long and I'd had enough; frankly, I didn't care whether Aaru thought I was involved or not. It wasn't going to stop me from doing anything. At this point, it seemed as if he was always going to be after me and I was always going to be looking over my shoulder. 

I wasn't going to let myself carry on living like this. Even if the thought of what we were doing, what could happen and the consequences that would bring for me, for Ben, for everyone involved made me feel slightly terrified. 

I busied myself with tidying up all the chairs and plates and glasses that had been used by the Bible group that had just left. They'd happened to leave half a quiche in their wake and, seeing as this wasn't the first time they'd left food behind, I was looking forward to having some in the morning, even if Ben did say that quiche was the food of Satan.

That just left more for me.

I wiped the crumbs of what looked like chocolate cake from the top of the piano - how they'd got there I had no idea - when I suddenly felt a pang of something. God, I was being stupid, wasn't I? 

It was just the way that the piano so resembled Ben - it was his domain, his pride and joy and right now he wasn't sat there because he was in a mood with me. I knew that if I asked him what he was doing, he'd make up a stupid excuse about tidying behind the front desk but it would all be bullshit. We were both proud and stubborn and didn't like admitting when we'd made a mistake or were sorry. 

I was going to go and talk to him. I had to. I couldn't let this stupid feud get in the way of what we had to do tomorrow. There was no room for rifts. 

'Margot?' It was Danny, his hands in his pockets, sheepishly standing at the edge of the floor. I felt myself take in a sharp breath.

'Hey - ' 

'Hey. Do you know where the others are?' I crumpled the cleaning cloth up in my hand as I stepped towards him. 

'Last time I was upstairs, Lula and Jack were there too. They seemed quite busy, I might give them a while - ' I said with a smirk and saw Danny roll his eyes in something of a kind-mannered way. They might tease each other all the time but I knew there was real love there. 'I think Merritt's asleep...' 

'He's always sleeping,' Danny said with a wry grin and I giggled, before I realized just what I was doing. I was not a giggler. I needed to get a grip. I didn't want to act differently around him; I didn't want to be one of those people. 

'And Dylan's having what seems like a 2 hour conversation with someone that I presume is 'The Eye' - ' I had no idea whether 'The Eye' were 1 person or a group or a whole freaking group and Danny didn't give much away in his facial expression. They'd probably all been sworn to secrecy on pain of death or something, hadn't they?

'Right.' I carefully brushed a stray crumb off the top of the piano, watching as Danny looked around the room and turned slowly on the spot. He was standing right there in front of me, his hands in his pockets, with no time pressures, no urgent death threats nearby that needed to be handled. He was right there.

I needed to tell him how I felt. Right now. I needed to tell him about the fizzing energy that seemed to flood through me every time we were close. I needed to do it right now or I swore I was going to burst.

'So - ' 

'So - ' I stared back at him, his eyes wide in surprise, as we both started speaking at the same time. He blinked, swallowed, looked down at his feet.

For fuck's sake. We needed to try that again. 

'You can go first.' He said with a small smile, clearing his throat. 

'No it's alright,' I said with a shrug, 'you first.' I hated myself for letting me take the easy way out. Why did I always do that? He nodded and swallowed again. What was he going to say? What did he want?

'Could I practice on the piano for a bit? I've not really done it for a while and if I'm being put on the spot tomorrow - ' 

'Sure, that's fine,' I waved him over, brushing a hand through my hair. I didn't know what I thought he was going to say but it definitely hadn't been that. I almost forgot that it was actually a thing, that he actually could play. 

That was a complete lie. No I hadn't; I'd pushed it to the back of my mind because I didn't need to think of anything else that turned me on about him. And there was something deceivingly sexy about playing the piano that I'd definitely never felt while thinking about Ben play.

Ben. He was still in a mood with me. I was going to sort that out. Right...

...In a minute.

Danny carefully sat down on the piano stool, running a hand through his hair. I knew that it must be something of a nervous tick, seeing how many times I'd seen him do it, but I wasn't even thinking about how apparently he was feeling nervous about playing the piano in front of me. My mind was on other things.

God, I loved his hair. I hadn't realized just how much, although the first time I'd seen him with his shaved head on TV both myself and Claude had had a mini-heart attack. Hair like that needed to be preserved. I'd immediately started thinking whether one of the others had dared him to do it or cut it off in his sleep or something. 

Anyway.

He cracked his knuckles and his fingers, positioning them on the keys and running through a couple of chords to warm up his hands. His hands seemed too big in comparison to the rest of his rather slight figure, but his fingers were still long and elegant and smooth as I watched them move across the keyboard and strike each note. His hands were most of his skillset, the way they could conjure birds and glitter and dollar bills from nowhere. He was so good with his hands.

No. That sounded much more sexual than I'd intended it to. I'd meant because he was a magician and a pianist. He was obviously skilled with them, but not in that way. Or maybe that way. I was still trying to figure everything out.

'Any requests?' I stared back at him for a moment. What did I say? What if I asked for a song and he'd never heard of it in his life? 

'Anything.' 

'I've got a pretty big back catalogue.' He said with a shrug. 'And that even extends to musical theatre.' 

'I sing things other than musical theatre pieces.' I said with a smirk. My music tastes tended to be half musical theatre and half classic rock - an amalgamation of both my mom and dad's favorite genres.

'I know. Anything?' I suddenly felt very under pressure. He could read far too into whatever choice I made. But what if I used that? I could make a point with it, show the feelings that my brain seemed determined not to allow my mouth to speak. If that wasn't the most clichéd thing I'd ever done and didn't happen in all of the annoying teen movies that Claude had made me watch on repeat.

I was becoming one of those people. But that's what music was - an expression of feelings that the artist didn't feel like they could say through words.

'Somewhere That's Green.' I said after a moment, folding my arms. 'If you don't know what then you need a musical intervention.'

'We did Little Shop of Horrors junior year.' Danny said, moving his hands to the correct place on the piano. 'I've got the entire score monogramed onto my brain.'

The image of a much smaller and equally as nerdy teenage Danny being in the orchestra for his school production was an image I didn't think I was ever going to be able to forget. Did he have to be so cute?

Danny started the opening chords and as soon as he moved into the melody, I started singing, moving around to the other side of the piano so I wasn't just hovering over his shoulder. And because Danny playing the piano made my stomach start to tingle and I wanted to be able to get through the song - one of my favorite songs - without having an aneurysm. 

Thank God I didn't feel this way about Ben playing the piano. Firstly, because that would be very messed up but also because I wouldn't have been able to get through my 27 years of life without having collapsed.

'You really are a great singer.' Danny said, as he played the final chord and I felt myself blush a little and rested my weight on the top of the piano and leaned forwards. It was how I always stood when Ben was playing.

'And you're a pretty decent pianist.' I said with a grin, watching him look at the keys for a moment.

'Thanks for doing this whole thing, by the way.' My smile faltered and my eyes narrowed. 

'What?' Had I missed something of this conversation while I'd been busy staring at his eyes and his hands and his hair? I didn't think so. But had I?

'Letting us stay and helping out with the mission and - ' 

'It's no problem.' I brushed off.

'But it is,' Danny continued, seriously. 'I know that you must be putting yourself through hell with Aaru and I don't want you to end up getting hurt because of us. I much prefer it when you're being sarcastic and hitting me.' I focused on the my gentle breathing, the way his face seemed to have got closer to mine somehow. I could feel myself heating up. He was so close, barely a couple of inches away. If I leaned forwards just a little more, I - 

I sprung backwards as I heard the familiar creak of the theatre door and turned to see Ben lingering in the doorway. I had to suppress a sigh and a roll of my eyes. 

Fuck Ben. I'd literally been seconds away from maybe kissing him. And now the mood was ruined and Danny had jumped into playing some obscure classic piece that was so perfectly him and I knew that it would have some stupid, pretentious name to match.

He made the music sound beautiful, even when he hit a wrong note. I wouldn't even have known he hit a wrong note if he hadn't paused for a split second, his nose scrunching up in irritation as his hands found the correct note and continued.

Not that I'd been staring at him. No. No way.

\- Thanks so much for reading!


	53. 52

I'd forgotten how good it felt to sleep in my own bed. I was never going to take that for granted ever again. Ever. It was bliss. The comforting warmth of my bed, coupled with the replaying of my conversation with Danny over and over in my head, made me drift off like a light. Even if Ben had interrupted it before it could come to a fully satisfying ending. I replayed it over in my head for most of the night.

And for most of the next day. I was glad to have something positive on my mind and something that filled me tingle inside rather than start to panic.

After breakfast, we spent the morning going through the plan again and again until it was ingrained in our heads and we could walk through it blindfolded. In the midst of our 3rd run-through, when everyone had been running low on motivation, Merritt had come right out and said how it was less of a plan and more of lots of standing around and hoping for the best. 

It was pretty accurate too be fair, but Dylan hadn't looked too pleased. But the fact that this 'plan' existed made me feel much more secure in what we were doing and comforted my brain which had a desperate need for everything to be organized. It felt much more than that considering the number of times we'd gone through it. I knew that if that was really all the plan was, then I would have started shouting at everyone a long time ago.

At least I knew that I was going to be with my friends. Because yes, I'd started to think of the horsemen as my friends. I saw them enough, they'd seen me at my lowest and hadn't gone running for the hills and as much as I hated to admit it, I did like having them around and being with them. Even if I hadn't told them that they'd been upgraded to coveted 'friend' status, I didn't feel like I had to.

And Danny was, well. I definitely would have liked to upgrade his status to something other than friend but he'd given me no real inclination that he felt anything towards me. Then, of course, there was the fucking annoying voice that was picking at me from the back of my head, edging me to remember what happened the last time I'd gotten into a relationship. 

That had been Aaru and I'd ended up nearly dead in a gutter. I knew all of the cheesy love lines - I'd read them often enough - about trusting your heart and how that wasn't going to happen this time because this time was different and I knew that it wouldn't but I still thought about it every single time I thought about getting closer to him. I'd had to clench my fists behind the piano last night to stop myself from wimping out at the last minute and slinking away.

I hated myself for that. I was under no illusions that Danny was some magical human being without a mean bone in his body or that our relationship, if it ever were to happen, would be perfect and absent from arguments but still. That voice in my head wouldn't let me get past it. Not even once.

At least, not yet.

***

A handful of hours later - I'd lost track of for how many I'd been working for - I finally had everybody wigged up with mustaches, hats and glasses on and I had to say that I was pretty proud of how everyone had turned out. Even Jack, who'd 'died' on live TV, would be able to go unnoticed. At least, that was what I was hoping for.

I was still getting used to myself with the blonde wig, though. I'd only worn it a few times and every time I caught a flash of my reflection in the mirror, I took a few moments for the shock to wear off. 

Jack had been much better behaved this time, he'd even found the energy to crack a few jokes, and I'd somehow managed to control my hands while sorting out Danny. My chest may have begun to constrict slightly and I'd become very cautious of how heavily I was breathing; I'd also got the feeling that he'd been watching me the whole time and his attention had almost caused me to faint but somehow I'd been able to get through it all without incident.

Thankfully, everyone had been much more interested in Merritt's long, slightly scraggly, brown wig that Lula had pulled into a bun on the crown of his head because no self-respecting waiter would be allowed to walk around with hair that long.

I considered snapping a few pictures to send to the gossip columns but I'd left my cell upstairs. More's the pity.

I'd gotten myself ready, styling the wig in a way that made it more like my real hair and forced my body into the pale pink dress that I'd borrowed from Claude. We were around the same height but she was much slimmer than I was but I already used the only 'smart' dress that I owned at the Louvre, and seeing as I couldn't wear it again in case Aaru or his men recognized it, I wasn't in much of a position to argue. 

Whilst doing my make up, I'd been practicing the Boston drawl which I'd decided would be my accent of choice for the night. It was just another step to make sure no one recognized me. Aaru wouldn't be listening out for someone from Boston.

I'd given myself ample time to get ready, my brain needing the time to get itself into gear and I'd known that if my wig hadn't co-operated with me then I would need the extra time to sort it out. Thankfully, I hadn't needed that extra time.

Claude was behind me, perched on the end of my bed as she adjusted the straps of her heels and fiddled with her tie for the hundredth time in the last 5 minutes. She looked gorgeous in her red wig, even with it slicked back into a ponytail and secured with more clips that I'd thought I owned. We didn't need it sliding off during the proceedings and giving the entire game away.

My hands were jittery with nerves as I wiped away a smudge of my red lipstick. I was filled with the swirling anxiety that normally consumed me before a show; the feeling of knowing what I had to do and having practiced it a thousand times but also knowing that anything could happen and I was going to have to roll with it when it did. 

It was either roll with the changes, keep my mind on the ball and not let the plates I was currently spinning slip, or die on the field. That was it. There were going to be no prisoners with something like this.

I had another bonus on my side though and that was, like whenever I did a show, that I had complete faith in every single member of my cast. Looking back, Paris now felt like the dress rehearsal. This was the real deal.

My head whipped up at the sudden knock of the door and I met Claude's equally nervous gaze. Was it really time?

'We're coming!' I called back, taking in a deep breath. 

'Danny's probably getting antsy.' Claude said with a smirk, straightening out her skirt. 'He has to be on time for everything. It's coded into his DNA.' 

It turned out to be Jack at the door, almost unrecognizable in his white shirt, black tie and black waistcoat, with a goatee and shaggy brown wig to complete his look. 

Only...I narrowed my eyes as I took in Jack's appearance again. His mustache had definitely slipped a centimeter lower than when I'd first applied it, and wasn't entirely straight. There was no way anyone would take that for a real mustache.

I gave him a hard glare as Claude came up behind me. He sighed and held his hands up in defeat, turning on his heel and hurrying down the stairs, leading back down the floor. I followed him, with Claude behind me, grabbing a tube of facial glue on the way. Honestly.

'What happened?' I asked as I entered the room.

'Nothing!' Jack insisted, which was complete bullshit.

'I'm guessing that you either ate a hamburger or were kissing Lula and got a little too excited.' The number of times I'd had to re-apply Ben's mustaches because he'd been kissing Claude was too high for me to count.

'I still can't get used to you in that wig.' Jack sighed as he sat down on a chair and turned round to face me.

'It's not going to be a permanent thing, you don't need to worry.' Danny suddenly came into the room, followed by Lula, Dylan and Merritt. He took one look at me and Jack, my hand touching the side of his face as I cautiously dabbed the blob of glue I had on my finger onto his face, and starting talking to Dylan about something I couldn't hear over Lula's laughing.

What was that about?

'Everything's locked up - ' Ben announced, striding into the room and shrugging on his suit jacket. I grinned at the sight of him - his shaggy blonde wig looking truly terrifying under the harsh lights - and he smirked back at me. We were alright now. We had to be. There wasn't time for an argument now.

'You really think we can do this?' Claude said suddenly and I felt the atmosphere in the room shift. Because it was easy to forget that while I'd been involved in the mob and had been swanning around Paris undercover, Claude hadn't. She'd never done anything like this before. 

'Course we can.' 

'But what if I mess up?' She said with a shrug and I shot her a warm look. I knew that she was going to be absolutely fine because I was going to make damn well sure that she was.

'You won't mess up.' Ben assured. 

'But I do weird things sometimes - ' 

'Hey, we're all dysfunctional.' Lula said with a grin, looking around at her fellow horsemen and then at myself, Ben and Claude. 'But that's because we're human. That's what makes us a family.' 

I felt my chest tighten for a second as she spoke. A family. I might not have considered us to be that close - aside from my obvious ties with Claude and Ben - but obviously Lula did. I felt a warm feeling bloom in my chest. 

'We're all going to be fine.' Dylan repeated with his hands deep in his pockets, shooting a warm smile around the room. And I believed him. I let my eyes slide over Claude, Ben, Danny. 

We had this.

Everything was going to be fine.

\- Margot's dress for anyone who's wondering (www.asos.com/asos/asos-wedding-wrap-drape-midi-dress/prd/5000599?iid=5000599&CTAref=Saved Items Page)


	54. 53

We arrived at the hotel a little before the doors were scheduled to be open because, considering Dylan and I were supposed to be running the show, we needed to look like we were in control and Dylan had wanted to give me some time to get used to my surroundings, which I definitely appreciated. The more at ease I felt in my surroundings, the more realistic a performance I was going to be able to give.

The hotel was definitely one of the most decadent places that I'd ever been to, fully decked out with gilt furnishings, plush carpets and thick velvet curtains. It was the kind of place I never would have dreamed about stepping foot into, mainly because of the hefty price-tag of each room. It was decadent and almost too much, too golden, too gaudy. It was definitely the sort of place that politicians had illicit extramarital affairs in.

I was stood anxiously by the doors, my hands tapping at my sides, a stack of information leaflets about the 'lots' we had on offer resting on the table in front of me. Everyone was stood in their places and I could tell that I wasn't the only one checking the time. 

It all felt like a show we'd spent the last few weeks prepping for and today was opening night, with all of the pressure resting on our shoulders. Only, the pressures of this opening night were a painting that had belonged to my mom and everyone's life. That was enough to perk anybody up.

I kept making eye contact with Claude from across the room, watching as she re-organized a plate of canapés for what seemed like the hundredth time. We'd decided not to use the earpieces unless we really had to. We couldn't rely on them the way we had last time, that had nearly ended in disaster. You could never know whether someone was tapping into our conversations and we couldn't afford for anything to go wrong, not tonight.

I shifted on my feet, folding my arms across my chest and gazing out through the glass doors. No sight of anyone yet. The whole reason that I was positioned this close to the doors was so we could run the face of everyone who stepped into the building through some facial recognition software and see if anything popped - if any of them had any kind of criminal connections, then we needed to keep an eye on them.

We needed to have as clear an idea as we possibly could as to who everybody was if we wanted to stand a chance of figuring out who our thief was.

I'd spent most of last night on my laptop, doing so more research into the technique of trafficking diamonds inside paintings and it seemed that over the years, there had been hundreds of reported cases and a little on diamonds that had found their way into museums, but nothing on private collectors who currently had them. I knew it had been a long shot but I'd been willing to check anything.

What if no one turned up? What if all of our work was for nothing and we were left standing around looking like a bunch of lemons all night? That would leave me even more concerned as to what Aaru was up to.

At least I had the live band to keep me occupied. Especially because the live band included Danny playing the piano. I would happily feel myself drifting off into the music and then remember that it wasn't just a random pianist playing, but actually Danny, and then I'd start thinking about all the other things he could do that distracted me. It was quite a substantial list, if I was perfectly honest.

I turned as I suddenly felt a body slide up next to me; it was Ben, balancing a try of champagne glasses in hand. I wanted to laugh at his wig but the firm line of his mouth made me pause.

'There are cars arriving outside.' He said stiffly, clearly having seen something from a side window that I couldn't see out the front. 

'Right.' I straightened out the straps of my dress, my heart suddenly thumping twice as fast to the point where my chest hurt slightly. I locked eyes with Dylan who was stood at the other end of the room, poised in front of the second door with a similar stack of leaflets in front of him. 

'You can do this,' Ben murmured, quickly kissing me on the cheek which was something he hadn't done in what felt like years.

I could do this. I could look Aaru straight in the eye without flinching. My Boston accent was as perfect as it was ever going to get, as was my art knowledge. If I didn't something, I would just have to blag it.

'I'll be close by if you need any help.' Ben said, still lingering by my side. 'But you won't, because you can kick ass - ' 

'I never thought you'd be giving me that compliment.' I muttered back, keeping my eyes pinned on the doors in front of me. 'You can be a bit of an ass sometimes.'

'I don't say it enough.' He said sincerely and I felt a smile slip onto my face as I looked at him. 'I love you.' 

'I love you too.' 

I watched Ben scuttle away as the doors suddenly flew open, the crisp evening air fluttering the length of my dress as I took in the sight of everyone, plastering a overly large smile on my face. Any one of them could have the diamonds, be our thief, and yet, by just looking at them you'd never even know. 

They all looked exactly the same - dressed to the nines in suits and overly smart dresses, but with something forced lingering behind their smiles and their coiffured hair and their high heels. Some of them - a tiny minority - were probably genuine art collectors but the rest were only here to make more money for themselves. The persona they were giving off was a façade, a lie, and it was our job to see through those lies.

So, no pressure.

I readied the pen in my hand. We had to take down as many names as we possibly could, to eliminate the chance of missing anybody on the facial recognition and letting them slip through our fingers like sand. I took a deep breath. Here we go. 

'Good evening, I hope you had a pleasant journey, please come in - ' 

***  
I managed to get through the first wave of guests without much incident. Everyone seemed to accept my accent and were much more interested in the lots on offer, rather than investigating if I really was who I said I was. We'd managed to pinpoint a couple of guests who had particularly interesting criminal backgrounds and seemed a little dodgy, but they were only guesses, we had nothing concrete.

In other words, we were just going to have to hold our breath and see what happened.

As well as keeping an eye on all the arriving guests, I was also keeping an eye on the horsemen, Claude and Ben as often as I could and this was a particularly difficult seeing as they all kept moving around.

Danny, for instance, was taking a breaking from the piano and was now circulating around the room and talking to people. It seemed he'd got fed up of sitting in the same position for almost an hour and wanted to get a feel for the guests, which was what the rest of us were doing. 

I knew that Dylan was due to welcome everyone in a moment, seeing as the streams of guests seemed to have finally dwindled. But I wasn't even thinking about how Dylan was going to drag me to the front of the room, I was busy keeping my eyes pinned on 3 particular points of the room.

Aaru was here with a handful of his men and they'd all split up so as not to draw attention to their large group but this only made keeping an eye on them harder. 

They might have no clue that the painting belonged to me - there was no way they could possibly know seeing as I'd only found out a number of days ago - but that didn't mean they still wouldn't try and steal it. He might be petty but was still a businessman, in the loosest sense of the word.

I'd been swearing furiously under my breath when Aaru entered the building through the door I was watching, rather than Dylan's, before plastering the biggest smile I could manage onto my face and stepping forward. Aaru hadn't even bat an eyelid - or, he had, but that had been to check me out and stare at my legs and not because he'd recognized me. 

I didn't know how to feel about that. It made me feel slightly sick. I was still me, with the same features that he'd supposedly fallen in love with and slept with, but now that they were given a different name he couldn't recognize them. 

Now I was doing my best not to stare at him. That would only draw suspicion and he'd probably start thinking I was checking him out and then come over to talk. I did not want that.

The other kept shooting sly winks, smirks and glances in my direction whenever they passed me and while I could still feel the nerves vibrating deep in my chest, there was also a flicker of excitement too because we were all in this together and if I thought hard enough, I began to think that I was in a spy film.

Dylan suddenly cleared his voice, the microphone in his hand blaring white noise across the room as he caught my eye and gestured me to the front of the room. While I was slightly terrified, Lorna Appleton did this thing all the time and had it completely under-control. 

Dylan started reeling off the lines I knew he'd planned and rehearsed last night as he welcomed everybody to the event and thanked them all for coming and said just how excited he was for tonight's action. I stayed stood by his side, a beaming smile on my face and a hand on my hip.

We had everyone in the room in the palm of our hand and everything was - 

Suddenly, the golden chandeliers that were shining over our heads flickered once and then died out. The room was plunged into almost pitch black and I felt my hands clench into fists. People started shouting and pushing through the mass of people in front of me and I could feel my heart beginning to beat faster.

Fuck. What the hell was happening? Oh fuck. We did not need this...

Without really thinking about what I was doing, I began slowly walking to my left, my hands out in front of me. I had absolutely no idea where I was going, despite the floorplan of the hotel flashing in my mind, but all I knew was that I wasn't about to stay still and get crushed.

I felt for my earpiece, carefully switching it on and holding my breath for a moment. We'd agreed only to use them if the situation absolutely called for it and if this wasn't one of those times, I didn't know what was.

Dylan was busy trying to calm down the crowd, his voice seeming strained, so I knew that he was in no place to be giving orders over the comms.

'What do we do?' I waited for a moment. Nothing. 'Is everyone alright?'

'Someone needs to get to the painting - ' Merritt said after a minute and I almost sighed with relief. I didn't really know why because even though the lights have gone off, it didn't mean anything had actually happened. But it still unnerved me. 'To me, this feels like someone doesn't want to pay their fee.'

'And what about the lights?'

'I'll try and sort that out.' Ben. He was fine, too. Thank God.

'Is Claude with you?'

'Yes, I'm here.' Her voice seemed to be shaking a little, but as long as Ben was with her, I knew that she'd be okay. Right now, I needed to concentrate on making my way over to the painting. It was being stored upstairs. I had no idea how I was going to tackle stairs in the dark.

'I'll go and check on the painting then,' 

'No, Margot, wait - ' That was Danny. 'Lula's closer.' 

'I'm on it.' Lula said. 'I'm running.' 

'I'll go with Ben and Claude for the lights,' Jack said, as I started making my way slowly over to where I knew the stairs was. I wasn't going to let Lula go on her own, not when there was a deep feeling of dread sitting low in my stomach. Dylan was still talking, his voice straining as he tried to make himself loud enough to control the distressed crowd.

But someone among that crowd wasn't distressed, if Merritt's theory was right. It was just a ruse so that they could get closer to - 

I dived to the floor, my arms wrapped around my head as the gunshots began to ring out around the room. The crowd really started screaming then, their panicked cries filling their as I pushed myself to a sitting position and hid behind a pillar. 

Now there was a gun involved. Great. My breathing was labored as I pulled my legs into my chest, resting my head on my knees as I tried to keep calm. I was safe where I was, at least where I thought I was. They didn't want to hurt anyone; the gun was just another ruse to keep everyone in one space while they went searching for the painting.

'What do we do now?' Jack breathed and I bit my lip. Every noise sounded amplified now that the crowd had quietened down. Did they know that someone among them was wielding a gun? 

'Duck. Get on the floor.' Danny said firmly and I sunk a little lower. 'And give me a minute to think.' 

'We might not have a minute,' Claude whispered, the panic clear in her voice. I wanted to be next to her, to be holding her hand and squeezing it and telling her that everything was going to be fine.

I had no idea where she was.

'We're not going to let this all fall through.' I said as loudly as dared. 'We just need to stay calm.' 

I winced as another round of gunshots pierced the air and I heard a few members of the crowd start crying. We'd planned for every eventuality, figured out a back-up plan for every one of our back-up plans and yet we'd come up with nothing for a situation like this. What did we do? We couldn't control anything. Unless we could.

I bit my lip, sucking in a breath until I was sure my voice wasn't going to waver. I dug my fingernails in my palms. I'd faced off worse.

'How about we all put the guns down and we just talk this through?'

\- Dun dun dun! What's going to happen next?


	55. 55

I jolted back from Danny as static suddenly started running through my earpiece, sending shockwaves through my brain. Then, silence. I knew from Danny's expression that the same thing had happened to him. I didn't have to ask him to know that there was no way we were going to be able to contact any of the others, at least not through our earpieces.

'They're messing with us.' I murmured, swallowing the dread that was building up in my throat.

I had a billion questions building up in my mind and was trying to deceiver the words that were being mumbled at the other end of the corridor, all while trying not to completely panic at all the new problems that were encountering and somehow keep my mind focused on the task, not the way Danny was looking at me and our close proximity and the warmth of his body.

I needed to think.

They were all in it together - all the guests who had so magically disappeared from downstairs had to be in it together. That was my working theory at the moment. But in every group there was a weak link, a loose end, someone who had put the most on the line to make this happen. And that was - I had no idea. No clue.

'What do we do now?' I whispered, moving closer to Danny. I was worried about my voice carrying around the corner and I knew that, in theory, we could have just moved away but I didn't want to lose them. As long as they were just around the corner, they couldn't be stealing the painting or hurting anybody else.

'We can't reach the others because our earpieces aren't working, we're unarmed - ' I wasn't going to bother correcting him; he seemed to be in a world of his own as he stared straight ahead and his eyes glazed over slightly. I mean, he wasn't armed - 

'Is this what you do in a crisis? Start rambling and profusely sweating? You need to calm down.' That was the irony of the century because as I said this, I was wiping my palms on the front of my dress and trying to keep my breathing steady. 

'Sorry,' He took a deep breath, looked down the corridor to check that it was empty before turning back to look at me. 'What do you think we should do?' Was this the same J. Daniel Atlas who would have rather punched himself in the face than take my advice the first time he met me? Really?

'We shut up and see what happens - ' The murmuring of voices suddenly got increasingly louder and I could make out one clear voice. I didn't recognize it. That voice definitely wasn't from Aaru or one of his men. It now sounded like the group were having an argument.

Because any gang that is formed quickly and under pressure is bound to have cracks and those cracks can run deep. And in a group of self-absorbed idiots, there was going to be a lot of cracks.

I almost fell into Danny when the first gun shot echoed down the corridor. Danny made to move but I grabbed his shoulder, giving him a warning look. If we ran now, there was a more likely chance that one of us would get shot in the process.

The cracks were definitely apparent, then.

Maybe they'd all end up shooting each other and save us the trouble? But then we'd never find out were the diamonds were being kept or who had them. I didn't fancy rooting through the pockets of some dead men.

'Is this about the painting or the diamonds?' Danny hissed, his eyes narrow. Both, I wanted to shout. 

'It's about stopping people from being hurt.' I whispered back. The gun at my thigh was almost burning a hole through my dress now - I was itching to grab it but I knew that I needed to wait for the right moment. I didn't want to throw gasoline on the flames too soon. I didn't want to freak Danny out, either.

I turned my attention back to the voices and picked up something that sounded like a groaning man. Whoever was wielding the gun certainly wasn't bothered about collateral damage. It seemed the gang mentality had broken down pretty quickly. 

And that meant that if, or when, the gang started moving down the corridor and ran into us, they weren't going to be pulling any punches.

'I think it's time,' I murmured under my breath because I could never give up the opportunity to be dramatic.

'Time for what?'

I pulled the gun from my holster that was tied to my tie, watching both of Danny's eyebrows shoot up as smoothed out my dress. 

'I don't know whether to be terrified or turned on right now.' He whispered and I felt my eyes immediately widen to the size of plates. 'Did I really say that out loud?' I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. I couldn't deal with that, with him, right now. I had to deal with this first.

'We can talk about it later - ' I said firmly, drawing my eyes away from him. The voices were beginning to grow quieter - they were either moving further down the corridor or more of them had just been knocked unconscious or worse.

'What do you want me to do?'

'Stay behind me and get ready to punch someone if you have to.'

'That's reassuring.' He murmured as I edged round the corner, peering down the empty corridor. I counted 8 bodies lying on the floor, some of them still, some of them dripping blood. How had someone managed to kill them all like that and yet I hadn't heard a thing? That wasn't some crazed gang leader. This was an assassin style-kill.

I picked out Aaru's men among the casualties as I moved closer, almost jumping backwards into Danny as I caught one of the bodies staring back at me with wide eyes. Of course he was fine - playing dead was one of his favourite ways of getting out of anything.

He blinked and groaned, slowly pushing himself up to a sitting position. I raised my gun at him and he sighed. 'You really going to shoot me, Margot?' 

The answer was obvious, really. He might have killed my spirit and, at one point I knew that I wouldn't have hesitated pulling the trigger but my mind hadn't been my own back then. I'd been consumed by the rage that he'd instilled in me. 

He might have killed my spirit once upon a time but I wasn't a killer. 'I'm not going to have your death on my conscience.' I said slowly and tried not to flinch as Danny put his hand gently on my shoulder.

Killing him would be the solution to so many of my problems. Life would be so much simpler. I wouldn't have to be constantly looking over my shoulder all the time. But maybe something about this situation, for Aaru to be on his knees and begging for his life as I wielded the gun, would re-address something of the balance between us.

'How righteous of you.' He drawled with a smirk. He really didn't make it easy for me, did he? There was nothing more I wanted to do than punch him right now. But the longer I stayed here, the longer the person behind this was - 

The smirk slowly disappeared from Aaru's face as I heard a floorboard creak next to me and a long shadow cast over the wall. I turned my head, hearing Danny take in a breath, and took in the figure, the familiarity of his face, the painting tucked neatly under his arm, the gun strapped to his belt.

I felt as though I'd been punched in the stomach. It was the man Claude had teased me about being my cute French boyfriend, the man I'd seen in the museum and who had kept appearing at every turn I made. 

Shit.

I knew he recognized me, and Danny too, because his eyes narrowed as they gazed over me, then Danny and then Aaru. He carefully placed the painting down on the floor, reaching for his gun; he wanted to finish the job and as long as Aaru was still alive it wasn't. That probably included myself and Danny now, too.

'Long time, no see.' He said confidently, his voice dripping with New York swagger and a crackle of something like Russian in the background. No trace of a French accent. He'd been planning this for weeks, probably even months. 

I felt the hand on my shoulder slip away. I raised the gun just as he reached for his. I had 2 people to protect, 3 if I couldn't Aaru and to be honest I was still thinking about that. The only thing he had to protect was his own pocket.

'I have a theory.' Danny murmured from behind me, his voice barely more than a whisper. I didn't turn to look at him, my eyes remaining fixed on the American-Russian-not French assassin in front of me. 'He's got the diamonds. He knows where the are - ' 

'Of course he fucking does - ' Aaru mumbled grumpily, switching his weight onto his leg and wincing at the pressure. Was Aaru on this guy's side or not. It was beginning to look like maybe not.

'And the painting would be a good addition.' Danny finished and I nodded, watching as the man's eyes slid between myself and Aaru who was still crumpled on the floor.

'You're not getting up.' I hissed to him as he began to push himself to his knees. I was quite happy for him to live out the rest of what might be his very short life on the floor. 

'I knew you'd say that.' Aaru grumbled with a roll of his eyes, shooting the man a sharp look before continuing. 'He's in the Black Hand, not that you've ever heard of them. They're a sort of soft terrorist all-round irritating group of Russians with sticks up their assess - ' 

'And why does he - they - care so much about my mom's painting?' I asked slowly, watching as the man's eyes narrowed even more if that was even possible. Apparently, he and Aaru weren't on the same side anymore, if they ever had been. It sounded like Aaru had been on their tail for quite a while. Maybe he hadn't just been following me for the hell of it - he'd actually been following this guy. He was an actual threat.

Aaru was scared of him. Scared of what he could do.

I had to stop trying to find reasons for me not to hate him. That was the way my brain constantly worked - it was constantly trying to backtrack and repair the memories and make everything seem right with him again, even if the logical part of my brain knew that it never would be. 

'Because she is the bitch who ruined our drug operation years ago. It was making us millionaires.' How did Mom manage to get mixed up in some drug bust by the Russians? Even if millions were on the lines here, it sounded a long way to go to get revenge. Maybe there was something else going on here that I hadn't seen through yet.

'Poor you.' 

He struck like a snake, so fast I barely had time to step backwards. He pushed backwards, grabbing Danny in a headlock and bashing his head against the wall before he left him crumpling to a heap on the floor, his nose bleeding. He then grabbed Aaru, securing his neck in the crook of his elbow and yanking it backwards until Aaru's face turned pale. I could see him gasping for breath, genuinely scared for what must have been the first time in his entire life with his ruined leg leaving him no way of escaping. 

I stepped forwards, checking that Danny's chest was still moving, even if it was far more rapid than I would have liked. This guy wasn't fucking around. He wanted us out of the way and silenced.

'You move and your a dead man.' I said, firmly and steadily, pointing my gun at the spot between his deep green eyes. 

'He's already dead inside.' Aaru choked, his voice nothing more than a faint rasp before the man tightened his grip. Still shouting sarcastic comments to cover his fear.

The painting was behind me. Literally. All I needed to do was take it and a run. Danny was alive, albeit not moving much and what did I care about the scum of the earth that was Aaru Landau? He could rot in hell for all I cared.

And yet my feet were pinned to the spot, beginning to ache in the heels that I was wearing as I tightened my grip on the gun. 

'Black Hand has thousands of members.' The man said suddenly, his Russian accent coming out much more strongly when he was committing violence, apparently. 'We will not stop. I will take the diamonds back to Russia, with the painting and -' 

'Take them back to Russia?' I queried, stalling for time which might not have been my best ever plan but was currently all I had. 'From what I heard, they've never even set foot in Russia - ' 

'You have no choice.' He continued regardless. 'Put the gun down and surrender. Or your friend dies.' If Aaru had been up to it, I knew he would be grinning at the mention of being my friend. But he wasn't. He was an ass and I shouldn't care one single fuck about what happened to him.

I wouldn't stoop to his level, though. I was going to take the moral high ground, even if it killed me, because that was the only thing Aaru had left in my arsenal. My only remaining weapon. 

'Margot, please - ' 

'Make a choice - ' 

'Margot, just put the gun down.' 

'You've got the painting Margot - ' 

I was sick of listening to other people who thought they could dictate my actions. It wasn't happening any longer. 

'Margot, please just do - ' 

'Ignore him, make a choice - ' 

'Margot!' 

It happened so fast. Aaru took another breath and tried to break lose, Danny made a lunge for the man, taking him by the shoulder and the man reached for a knife that I hadn't detected, sharp and elongated and perfect for slicing into Danny's neck as he grabbed for Aaru's shoulder - 

I squeezed the trigger before I knew what was happening.


	56. 54

I held my breath, the sound of the blood rushing through my ears overpowering the silence that was echoing around me. My earpiece was buzzing faintly in my ear; there was no word from Lula, Jack or Ben. At least I knew Ben, Jack, Claude and Lula were out of immediate danger.

If they'd got that far.

But even Dylan had gone quiet now, the round of bullets having silenced him. Ben, Jack, Claude and Lula might be out of immediate danger but the rest of us weren't. 

Someone really wanted to get their hands on one of the lots we had on offer and we'd advertised Mom's painting more than anything else so I was willing to bet that it was that that all this fuss was about. It had to be, didn't it? 

Whoever they were, they were sophisticated enough to have pulled this off: to have been able to sneak past us, to get into the control room, switch off the lights and start shooting a gun. That wasn't an amateur. That was someone who knew what they wanted to achieve; that was someone who had enough funds and resources at their disposal to pull it off.

I shifted my position slightly, unclenching and clenching my hands as they began to cramp up. The person behind this was either a Batman-type figure who was a millionaire and had a serious agenda to fulfill or they were a group because I couldn't rule it out to be just one person.

And if it wasn't Aaru, because I'd had my eyes firmly on him despite giving off the impression that I was surveying the entire room and knew that there was no chance he had left he room because I would have noticed him, then who was it? Was other group was interested in this?

Whatever group was interested meant that this whole thing went a lot deeper than just some painting that had belonged to my Mom.

No one had responded to my question - or rather, my plea - to put the guns down and talk about it but, then again, no more bullets had been fired either so that had to mean something, didn't it? 

I was still hoping that they'd only brought the guns to scare everyone and they didn't actually plan on using them. I'd had enough experience at standing in front of a gun to last me a lifetime.

I shifted slightly again, trying to get my breathing under control to dull the ache that was beginning to form in my chest. I couldn't help anyone when I passed out on the floor from no oxygen. 

My eyes were becoming accustomed to the darkness now and I was trying to work out the finer details of the shapes in front of me. Could I pick out anybody from the crowd? I peered around the pillar, picking up the sound of some quiet murmurs and few desperate sobs that someone was trying hard to keep in the back of their throat.

I suddenly blinked against the harsh light that flooded the room as the lights flickered back on. I jumped to my feet, scanning the crowd of people in front of me and searching for those familiar faces. I let out an audible sigh as I caught sight of Danny on the other side of the room, also half-hid behind a pillar, and could have wept when he shot me a slightly shaky but firm look.

No one was hurt. No one had been injured. 

Everyone was just very confused. And anxious to find whichever lunatic had brought their gun with them.

I quickly located Dylan and Merritt, both of them wearing similar looks to Danny - they were worried and confused and kind of pissed but unhurt and that was the main thing, wasn't it.

Dylan started speaking again, perfectly keeping up the ruse that he'd created even at a time like this.

I didn't need to do a headcount or consult my list to know that the group had people in the room had grown slightly smaller than it had been when the lights flickered off. 

My stomach suddenly clenched. Aaru and his men weren't there. I'd seen them when the lights had flickered off, they'd been at the middle at the back and now they were just...gone. They must have made a break for it while it had been dark. 

But they were in the room so they couldn't have been the ones to mess with the lights. And that meant that at least 2 parties were interested in the painting. That was at least, what, 10 people?

Fuck.

Lula was alone and looking for the painting and if I was correct then a hoard of at least 10 people were going to be chasing after her. She was good but she wasn't that good. 

'We need to split up.' I breathed, watching the group of guests slowly get to their feet as Dylan assured them that everything was going to be okay. If anything they looked terrified and fed up; they didn't look very interested in the painting and therefore I wasn't interested in them, either.

'I'm going off to find Lula.' I said, moving towards the stairs.

'No, we need to stick together.' Danny said. 'We can't let the plan fall through now.' The plan had already fallen through, seeing as Lula was now on trail of the painting and Jack, Ben and Claude were making their way back from whatever room had the lighting controls in. The plan had already changed - we hadn't come up with a plan that involved dealing with guns - and we were going to have to adapt to that.

'We need to split up and track down the guests who have now gone missing because according to the laws of probability, they're the ones that we're after.' I caught Danny's eye. He remained still for a moment before sighing.

'Fine. Ben and Jack, stay down there and see if you can find anything to say who flicked off the lights. Claude and Merritt can stay in here, watch the doors, make sure no one tries to leave - ' 

'We need to head after Lula,' I said, gesturing to the stairs before I took off, hoping he got the message that I was expecting him to follow me. Lula had been alone, and silent over the comms, for too long now and I was getting antsy. If Aaru was going after her, as well as another unknown party, she needed backup and she needed it now.

I moved as quickly as I dared down the corridor, thankful the floor was carpet so my heels didn't clatter across the floor. I felt a presence behind me, quickly turning my head to check that it was Danny, before continuing down the corridor. He didn't have to speak but I could see the panic in his eyes. We were both control freaks and when things strayed from the plan we started to go a little crazy.

I was working on changing that, hence the fact I was currently edging down an upstairs corridor when the plan had stated I would never have to leave the ground floor.

One of the people, or some of the people if they were working together, who left the room must have the diamonds because that was why they wanted the painting. The kind of people who were bothered about the painting, who didn't just sell the diamonds on straight away, were the kind of people that Aaru wanted to be - wealthy, powerful, calculated, sophisticated. 

'What if this is all a ruse?' Danny murmured and I swallowed the lump in my throat. 'And the person responsible is downstairs?' 

'We can't start psychoanalyzing every person in the room, that's too complex and it'll take too long and we'll never get anywhere. We need to deal with this first and if nothing comes up, we can go back to that. We need to get eyes on the runaways, I'm estimating there's about 10 of them. Either they just got spooked and made a run for it or they're after the diamonds. Conveniently, Aaru and his men were among the people who ran so I'm guessing it's the latter.'

I suddenly stopped as I rounded the corner, pausing to listen to the slight murmurs I could hear coming from nearby. They were quiet but I didn't think they were coming from downstairs. They sounded too clear, too distinct for that.

Danny, being the self-entitled idiot that he is, obviously didn't read my pause as anything to think about because he continued round the corner. Maybe he was too wrapped up in the whole thing to even know what he was doing anymore.

I dragged him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him back towards me, pressing him into the wall using his own momentum and body weight. I could feel his breath on my face as let out a deep breath. I felt as though I was drowning in his cologne as his eyes were pinned on my face, a bewildered expression on his face. 

'There's people round the corner. I think.' I mouthed, my voice barely more than a whisper. Embarrassment seemed to dawn on his face and as I closed my eyes and bit my lip. I'd seen figures when I'd burst out into the next corridor to grab Danny. How many had I seen? Had it been Aaru?

Yes. I think it had. His frame and features were so heavily engrained in my head now that I only needed to glimpse them to know that it was him.

But I'd only been able to locate 6 of Aaru's men, including him, that were here tonight and there had definitely been more than 6 people in the corridor.

There was too much to think about and combining my adrenaline and anxiety and the heady scent of Danny's cologne and the sweating of my palms, I was getting carried away.

It was Aaru, I knew that. And some other people. Why would he be with some other people?

For fuck's sake.

Danny raised an eyebrow at me and I rolled my eyes. How had I not seen it? They were all working together. They had to be. Aaru and his men and whatever new party wanted to get involved in it.

Everything had just got a whole lot worse and I still didn't know where Lula was, or who had the painting. I couldn't let him get away with it. This might have started off as just a simple way to get some easy cash but now it had turned into something else all together.


	57. 56

I was running off adrenaline, every nerve in my body fizzing with nervous energy as I watched the body of the man fall to the floor, a spray of blood sprinkling over Danny and Aaru as they both jerked backwards. He would have killed us all - the deadly knife still clutched in his hand still testament to that. 

I lowered the gun slowly, watching Aaru let out an exhausted sigh, yanking at his shirt collar as though he couldn't take in air fast enough. Danny pushed himself to his feet, his balance unsteady, his eyes wide. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, desperately trying to frighten the light away.

'Stop moving.' I ordered Aaru, as he somehow pushed himself up to his knees and was reaching for the gun out of the man's belt. I raised the gun and stepped forwards, forcing me to halt his actions as he held up his hands. 'Did you honestly think that I was just going to let you walk out of here?'

'Well, I - ' 

'You're actually afraid of them, aren't you?' I said ruefully, gesturing down to the man's body. 'Of the Black Hand? I could see it. And the only way you think you can protect yourself is by knowing everything about them in an attempt to take them down.'

'Clearly not, because if I knew everything about them I would never have been in this position in this place - ' 

'By knowing something about them, then. It also doesn't help you that no matter how hard I try I can't block out any of the memories of what you put me through and I remember that name.' I grit my teeth in determination as I raised the gun as Aaru started to move again. 'I remember the Black Hand and that means you've had dealings with them before. You thought you could use that to get to them.' 

I took a deep breath, realizing I'd been forgetting to breathe throughout my tumbling back through my memories. I could feel Danny watching me as he lingered out the outskirts of the circle that we'd formed, the dead body of the man lying in the center. I really wanted to reach out and take Danny's hand, just to get some stability and feel like I was actually living in the moment instead of floating above it. 

But I didn't trust my hands not to shake with only one hand holding the gun and I needed my best aim. That was the only way that I was going to be able to stay in control here. Aaru might have a dodgy leg - I wasn't sure whether he'd broken something or it was a fracture or he'd torn a muscle or something - but I knew that if he put his mind to it, he'd be able to make it blocks away from here before he collapsed. 

'How about we make a deal?'

'You are in absolutely no position to make any fucking deals.' I spat out, narrowing my eyes and realizing that at some point along the line I'd started crying which made my words sound even more pitiful. 'You killed me.' My voice was breaking and cracking as I raised it, but all the nerves and tensions that I held down in my stomach all evening were finally brewing to the surface. 

All the nerves and tensions that I'd held down for the last 3 years, more like, were pouring out. He killed me and I had to rebuild myself from the inside out. 

'You are in no position to be asking anything from me,' I hissed, my voice raw and shaky but strong enough that Aaru stopped moving and finally looked me in the eye. 'You should be begging on your fucking knees or I swear to fucking God I'll put a bullet in your head, right now and I won't even fucking flinch!' 

He didn't speak. He swallowed, deeply, and looked down at the knife clutched in the man's hand. He was alone, for what seemed like the first time in ages. He really was just one man, not the supervillain that I created him to be in my head. He was just one man, who happened to be a massive asshole.

Now, he didn't have anybody to hide behind or any of his men to come and help him because they were lying half-dead behind us.

I released my fingers slightly, the tension running through them causing them to cramp up a little. I needed a moment to think, to breathe, to calm down. I turned to Danny.

'You okay?'

'I'm fine.' He looked a little shaky but I didn't say anything. Aaru rolled his eyes. 

'He's your new lap dog then, is he?'

'No.' 

'Because he looks like it.' 

'When you get bored of me, you have to take it out on someone else, don't you?' I said scathingly, watching his mouth curve into a smirk. He was going to start on Danny, I knew it. Because he couldn't cope with me being friends with a man that wasn't him, could he? 

'You fucked him yet?' I was seriously going to punch him in a minute. 

'No. And you know why? Because I've been too busy dealing with your sorry ass - ' I didn't even know what I was saying anymore and I didn't really care. I was past the point of caring with him. If Danny thought I was some kind of deranged, sex-addict who was on the verge of having a mental breakdown then so be it and because at least some of that was true.

'Well, I - '

'You need to start talking about where these diamonds are.' I said, cutting him off and tightening my fingers around the gun again. 'Because they're certainly not on him.' I gestured with my foot to the body of the man, his black suit far too form fitting to hide anything larger than the size of a dime.

'I don't know where - ' 

'You can cut the fucking bullshit. I know you know where - ' 

'I'm telling you Margot, I'm innocent in this one.' He held up his hands and sounded almost smug as he spoke. He might say that he was innocent for this one - not that I believed him in the slightest - and it would be the first crime that he'd ever had nothing to do with.

'You're the reason mom's dead. She got caught up in your drug operation which was probably their drug operation as well and you're the reason that she's dead. She was investigating what you were doing and that's what got her killed. You're the last person who knows who definitely had the diamonds.' 

That was more theory than fact but Aaru didn't need to know that. It was stab in the dark that he even known about the diamonds in the first place, even before he'd started trailing the Black Hand for whatever reason that had started happening. It looked like I'd hit something, though. Aaru didn't speak for a moment, flexing his hands. He knew something.

'The last person who I knew who had the diamonds was your mom.' What? Mom? But - then where were they now? 'She'd been looking for them for weeks, poking her nose around. Someone must have spilled to her that we weren't just dealing with drugs but something more precious entirely. But her painting, the one she got from our warehouse, was the last in a circuit and she picked it up before the trade could be made.' 

'That's why they killed her.' I breathed, looking over at Danny with wide eyes. 'They wanted the diamonds.' I had been calling her killers they for years now and maybe finally I was getting somewhere. 'But where are the diamonds now?' I asked, my brows furrowing. 'If they're not in the painting then where are they?'

'She must have hidden then somewhere.' Aaru said, his face screwing up in pain as he attempted to stand on his bad leg. 'Or sold them. Who knows.' 

Was Aaru responsible for her death? It had always been an idea in the back of my mind because it was easier to blame Aaru for everything bad that happened to me, rather than finding out the true culprit. I didn't need more than one asshole in my life. It was just easier to blame everything on him. 

Could I trust him? No.

Did I want to trust him? No.

But a part of me did. The part of me that wanted to fix everything that had happened wanted to pretend it had never happened in the first place. And trusting Aaru would be a part of that. 

I still didn't lower the gun. What did I do? The adrenaline was wearing off now, the true tiredness and confusion beginning to set in. 

Somewhere in the distance, I could hear voices calling out mine and Danny's name. I saw him shift as he heard them too. Aaru sighed and let his head loll back against the wall. 

I had a name - The Black Hand - and not much else. I had a name and Aaru, which was slightly more than what I'd always had. 

Did I kill him? Did I banish him? Would he even listen? 

I had enough to hand him over to the cops, I knew that. I'd just never done it because I'd never wanted to unearth it all for myself. And what if Aaru's information, his contacts, were what I needed to find out who killed my mom? I wasn't going to be able to track down a Russian terrorist group on my own. I was going to need some help. 

And Aaru wasn't going anywhere quickly on that leg for a while. 

I lowered the gun to my side, my arms aching. I was getting good, or at least trying to be, at rolling with what happened and learning to adapt to my situation. This was just another bump in the road. I could still set Aaru's car on fire whenever I felt like it and he knew that I could hand him in to the police whenever he pissed me off.

I had more power now and he knew it. We weren't going to work the same way that we had before.

I wasn't a pushover anymore. And he knew that. Everyone knew that. 

\- LAST CHAPTER WARNING GUYS! Thanks so much for reading!


	58. 57

We called the cops before jumping into a car and making our way back to the hotel, leaving Aaru, his men and the rest of whatever third party had been involved but obviously hadn't been important enough for Aaru to tell us about, for the police to find. 

Once the rest of the horsemen had found us and Dylan had started barking orders, I'd partially zoned out. I'd been too busy trying to process everything in my head to help organize everything. Even though my first instinct was to disbelieve everything that came out of Aaru's mouth, there was something about his words that did ring true and the dots of information in my mind were slowly beginning to connect.

I managed to look Aaru straight in the eye and while I might have been shouting and crying, my hands hasn't been shaking and I hadn't felt like I was going to collapse. I might have wanted to punch him into oblivion but I hadn't been frozen to the spot with fear and that was something.

I was now sat in my room, carefully peeling the wig from my scalp and erasing the layers of makeup from my face. Aaru hadn't made any snide comments about the wig, even though I knew he definitely would have though of some. 

I was feeling more like myself again. Not just because I'd removed the wig, the make-up, the face accent, the dress and the heels but because I felt like I'd been able to win back something that had been missing from me before.

I knew that I was probably never going to be able to fully build myself back together but that didn`t matter; I`d got some control back in my life, and that was all I wanted - to feel like I was in control of my body and what was happening to me. I knew Aaru wasn`t going to go away - I wasn`t that hopeful - but he wasn`t going to be able to act as freely as he once had. 

I'd barely spoken in the car ride back home, despite Ben and Claude's attempts at asking how I was and the quips from the others about how I and Danny had disappeared for a while and we didn't need to change the entire operation if we wanted to get some alone time.

I'd forgotten that, amongst Aaru being a dick, I'd admitted to not having the time to sleep with Danny because of him. And while my feelings went a lot deeper than just wanting to sleep with him, I was partially glad that Aaru had forced this quip out of me. Regular Margot might never have said anything but hyper Margot managed to finally spit it out.

Now I just had to deal with the aftermath of admitting that I'd quite like to kiss him and run my hands through his hair. Hopefully it wouldn't be too awkward.

As I wiped the last trace of lipstick from my face, a loud blast of music echoed from downstairs. It might be 2 in the morning but that wasn't deterring anyone - Ben was in the process of making some food and Jack had seized control of our music system, claiming he was sick of Danny's repetitive piano music.

I, on the other hand, thought he played beautifully. But that was just me.

I made my way downstairs, lingering in the wings as I looked out over the floor. Danny was at the piano, flicking through some of Ben's sheet music, as Jack, Lula and Claude danced in the center and Dylan and Merritt lingered on the outskirts, both drinking beer. We'd got through it. We were fine.

And yet it still seemed as though we hadn't achieved anything.

'And here's the girl of the moment!' Merritt called as he caught sight of me and I rolled my eyes, stepping forward as Claude took my hands and tugged me towards her. 

'I didn't do anything.' I said with a shrug, ignoring the jubilant smile on Claude's face. 'It all seems like a bust.' 

'None of it was a bust.' Dylan said suddenly, his tone turning serious. 'We gave the authorities more leads and paths that they can follow. We learned about this mysterious Black Hand group - '

'And we learned that our French hottie is a terrorist, so we can all cut our losses.' Claude said with a shrug and a roll of her eyes. 'It's a shame. He was cute.' 

'And now he's a dead...' I murmured as Claude wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder. I was cautious of the eyes that were watching us for all of a second before I gave into her warmth.

'I'm so proud of you, you know.' She muttered against my hair as we slowly swayed to the music. 'You're amazing. I love you.' 

'I love you too.' I replied, feeling myself smile without even trying. I did. Claude was part of the glue that kept me together. She let out an exaggerated gasp and pulled away from me, staring me straight in the eye. What?

'Did Margot Rosario just give someone a compliment?' I rolled my eyes and playfully hit her on the arm. 'I don't know what the horsemen have done to you but they seemed to have softened your crunchy exterior to reveal the soft chewy center.' She teased, pulling away from me as she sauntered off in the direction of the kitchen where Ben was making...something.

'I can still kick your ass and you know it.' I called and she stuck her tongue out at me as she disappeared behind the door.

I felt myself grin.

I let my eyes over to the piano where Danny was still sat flicking through sheet music. I slowly approached him, a nervous excitement boiling in my stomach. We still hadn't talked about what had happened in the corridor. I didn't quite know how to bring it up.

'Can I make a request?' His head shot up as I spoke, his eyes widening as he saw me. He looked slightly startled. What did that mean? Was he reliving the moments in the corridor? Or was I reading far too into it?

'Yeah, sure...'

'A Thousand Miles? I know it's cheesy but it's Claude's favorite.' I saw him smirk a little but he didn't say anything. As soon as he started on the opening chords, the door to the kitchen swung open revealing Claude and Ben, with Ben carrying a tray of pizza.

I instantly started singing, leaning against the piano as Claude rolled her eyes at me before dragging Ben in to dance with her. He clumsily passed the tray of pizza over to Jack and shot me an annoyed glare before turning his attentions back to Claude. He might say that he was annoyed with me, and he might pretend that he was, but anything that made Claude smile was something he was all onboard with.

Even if it involved him doing some spontaneous public dancing.

As soon as the song finished and I took a deep breath, Claude pulled away from Ben and started clapping like a mad person with a wide smile on her face. Everyone else was clapping as well and I noticed Danny looking a little sheepish as he accepted the applause. He could take it when he was famous magician J. Daniel Atlas but when he was himself, it was more difficult to take.

'Is anyone going to talk about the fact Margot basically admitted she wants to sleep with Danny?' Jack said suddenly as the clapping began to die out and I felt my eyes grow wide, my hands gripping onto the side of the piano. What? For fuck's sake...

'How do you know that?' I asked incredulously, still trying to keep some kind of defiant air about me. I hadn't admitted to it, she didn't have anything on me.

'You were shouting pretty loudly at that point.' He said. 'We were looking for Lula and, well. You weren't keeping it quiet.' 

'And it would seem that Danny Boy doesn't know what to do with himself.' Merritt smirked, taking a long gulp of his beer.

'Shut up.' Danny shot back, but not harshly. What was going on here? I did not think I'd be having this conversation with the entire group. 

'He's been pining after you for ages,' Merritt continued and I didn't really know who was speaking anymore because that's not what I was paying attention - I was paying attention to the words they were saying, the feeling that Danny apparently had for me.

All the while Danny remained silent, glaring off into the distance. 

'He thinks she's gorgeous - which you are - and clever and talented and funny...' 

'I'm officially unfriending you all on Facebook - ' Danny spluttered, shaking his head as though that could block their words out. They couldn't be making all of this up, could they? I could feel myself sweating and my heart rate was picking up. Claude was beaming, a smug look on her face, while Ben just looking kind of confused. 

Atlas was stuttering as the horsemen continued firing questions and his supposed statements back at him, his face slowly turning pink and his murmurings becoming quieter and quieter. It was cute and endearing and I couldn't cope with it all.

He was digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole as he spoke as I realized that the words the horsemen were claiming he had said did sound very much like what he would say. It was true. It was true. 

He actually liked me back. Actually. He didn't think I was trash. He actually thought I was alright. More than alright if his reactions were anything to go off. 

Holy shit.

'How about I step in?' I said, not sure when the smile had appeared on my face but I was sure it wasn't going anywhere any time soon. 'Do you want to go on a date with me?'

That shut him up. The whole room seemed to go quiet and I wasn't focusing on anything that wasn't him. I could practically see the sarcastic comments whirring around in his brain, the way he probably wanted to bat this away and go back to his 'flings' the gossip columns reported him for being famous for. 

But somehow, I didn't think he was going to do that. 

He blinked back at me a few times before scratching at his head and nodding timidly. 'Sure.' Everyone started cheering and I was pretty sure Merritt started leading a toast, despite him and Dylan being the only ones with drinks but I wasn't paying attention. 

I was going on a date and I didn't feel like I was going to have a panic attack. The excitement was outweighing the worry in my mind and that hit me like a freight train.

I had no idea what was going to happen with this date. I was here and would be here for a while and he was a horsemen who was in a different city every month. I was pretty unstable and liked things my way and he was a control freak. The faults and failings were piling up in my brain but I pushed them away. I was going to try. I had to try.

I was going to try because Danny was freaking adorable when he wanted to be and whenever we were in the same room, I was rolling my eyes and hiding the smile from my face.

I looked up as a shadow crossed my face. He'd stood up from the piano stool and was now leaning next to me against the piano. He had a few inches on me and I had to look up slightly to meet his gaze. I'd never noticed that before. I'd never been this close to him before, except when we'd had to share a bed and I hadn't been focusing on his height then.

I could feel his breath warm on my face; he wasn't moving away from me, either. I could count the faint freckles across his cheeks that I hadn't noticed before. His mouth curled into a smirk, as he looked down at his shoes and then back up at my face. His eyes seemed much more green close up. 

'I was working up the courage to ask you out but you beat me to it.' He said with a shrug and I smiled.

'Don't tell me you're competitive.' He rolled his eyes.

'You probably could have guessed that.' Yeah, I could have. 'I really like you and it's annoying.' 

'Same.' I sighed deeply. 'But it must be worse for you knowing you're going to lose every argument we're ever going to have. And that I'm going to steal all your shirts just to annoy you. And all your jumpers because they look really cute on you - '

I didn't really know what I was saying anymore; I was just rambling but my words didn't seem to be important because Danny was smiling regardless. Was it just me hallucinating, or had he really leaned forwards a little? His face suddenly seemed closer.

His eyes were searching my face for any sign of discomfort or hesitation but why would I have any when I'd basically been thinking about this moment for what seemed like forever?

He leaned forwards, quickly pressing his lips to mine as his hands hovered over mine. I was quick and slightly sloppy as I grew accustomed to the height difference but he felt warm and soft and gentle and as he pulled away, I instantly wanted to dive back in. I cautiously intertwined our hands, watching his smiling - if somewhat dazed - expression and felt myself grinning.

I turned at the sound of Ben, of course it was Ben, pretending to retch in the corner and I rolled my eyes as Claude let out a chuckle. 'You can shut up, I have to put up with the two of you having sex all the time.' 

'She brought out the big guns.' Merritt mumbled and I would have thrown something at him if I wasn't far too wrapped up in the feeling of my fingers twisting around Danny's. I would let him off for now.

'And now you're making me feel awkward because you said the word sex.' He said with a smirk.

'I thought you have sex with all your flings all the time.' I said with a grin, squeezing his hands slightly. He shot me a hard look. 

'All my flings? Try 3. And they weren't even flings, it's just semi-drunk girls throwing themselves at me - ' 

'It must be so hard.' 

'You've no idea.' He said with a chuckle, leaning forwards to quickly kiss me again as Ben suddenly started at the piano. I'd been in this, whatever this was, for less than 2 minutes and was already learning that Danny didn't care much for PDA but his quick kisses were more than enough for me.

I was still tingling. Not just my lips, but all over. I could hear Claude talking behind, laughing to something Dylan had just said. I didn't think I would ever stop smiling. 

For the first time in my life, I didn't think I was ever going to stop.

FEATURED SONGS:  
\- Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles


	59. Epilogue

And that's it folks! Thank you so much for reading and thank you so much for sticking around and making this such a fun experience! 

If you want to check out more of my work, I've got a whole host of other stories that you can check out:  
*What The World Needs Now Is Love /Part 2 - Based in the Criminal Minds universe following my OC Lizzy whose seemingly normal and perfect world is cracked right open by a serial killer, the BAU and SSA Aaron Hotchner

*Kindly Calm Me Down - Based in the Marvel world and following my OC Regan in the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War where every loyalty is tested and everything is put on the line, for love and her life, for a chance with a super soldier

*The Rose Hallows - Based in The Chronicles of Narnia world and following my OC Georgie and her escapades with a vicious murderer, a world of secrets and lies and a handsome king

And I've also got a whole bunch of stories planned for the future including some Star Trek adventures, some fun in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. universe, some more obscure things like a Sirius Black thing with serious Narcissa/Lucius themes, a random Murder on the Orient Express thing featuring Marquez (who's basically a Spanish Foscarelli) and maybe even a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in a theatre company so stay tuned!


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